Helios
by Joker6623
Summary: Admiral Danforth Ward and the Battlestar Group 86 were saved from the Cylon Holocaust by being fortunate enough to be stationed on a secret base known as Helios. Now, outnumbered and outgunned, they must fight for their Colonies.
1. Chapter 1: Welcome to Helios

Ok here is the update that I promised you all. It is really nothing big aside from a quick rename of one of the side characters (Little to Harvard) and the change from Ward's old ship from the Indefatigable to the Orion.

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><p><strong>Picon Fleet Headquarters, Picon. Two years prior to the Fall<strong>

Vice Admiral Danforth Ward's footsteps echoed through the concrete halls of the Picon Fleet Headquarters. Buried under four hundred meters of steel, concrete, and rock, the Fleet HQ seemed more like an impenetrable fortress rather than a place to conduct Fleet operations.

The two MPs that escorted the Admiral hadn't said a word to the man since he had entered the base. Everyone seemed more on edge than the last time he had visited headquarters, but he hadn't been this deep into the base in years. Maybe he had just forgotten.

Ward smirked as he moved past the dozens of offices of the old flag officers he had known over the years. He had turned down multiple promotions in order to stay out of this place. He couldn't be trapped in some bunker planet side, it'd drive him insane. He needed to be in space.

Finally, the man reached the end of the long hall way and stood before a pair of heavy blast doors. Two additional MPs stood guard in front of the doors and forced him through yet another security check. He wanted to laugh as the men searched him and ran him through another ID check, for it was unnecessary to be checked this deep into the base, but as irritating as it was, he wasn't about to disobey protocol.

Eventually, the massive doors slide open and Ward stepped through to find two men talking at the head of a long oak conference table opposite of the doors. One he recognized as Fleet Admiral Peter Corman, the reason he had been called to Fleet HQ, but the other , with his back to Ward, could see wasn't wearing a Colonial uniform, yet the Admiral still spoke to the man with a sense of respect.

The two men turned as he stepped forward into the room. "Ah, Dan you're here." Corman smirked, "You're late."

"Apologies, sir. We took a little longer than expected mopping up on Oasis. The pirates were a little better armed than expected." Ward began walking around the long table to meet the two men.

"Did they give the great Admiral Ward of the Taskforce Saber some trouble?" Corman laughed as the old friends shook hands.

"Of course not, but you know, the bigger the bug you smash, the bigger mess it leaves behind." The second man nodded at the comment and gave a smile to the Admiral that was only one of a politician. Fake and as deadly as a snake.

"Mr. President it's an honor, sir." Ward said as he shook the President's hand. Frakking politicians. He thought but continued to smile. "I didn't expect you here."

"Admiral Ward, it's pleasure to meet you, and neither does the rest of the Twelve Colonies. It's good to know we can still keep some secrets." The President flashed his fake smile, the one that had helped him win the election, and Ward returned the gesture.

"Well lets get down to business." Corman showed the two men to their seats at the massive table.

"Admiral as you know the defense budget is being cut, but I can't do anything about it. The ministries are closing their hold around me more and more each day." The President started, " But we still have several weapon projects that need to be completed" He slid a manila folder in front of Ward and continued to speak. "These are the specs for some of the most deadly weapons that the spooks in the lower levels have ever thought up. We'd like to see these weapons reach operational status, but the ministries won't have it."

Admiral Ward skimmed through the files quickly and saw the destructive force of some of the weapons, one looked to be an oversized nuclear weapon, and from the specs it looked like it could scorch a planet's surface. Of course this was probably an overstatement of the weapons power, but it wouldn't hurt to have a weapon that could do that on your side. "Of course I can see why you'd want some of these weapons. If we ever faced a threat that could push us back on our heels these could turn the tides."

"Exactly our thinking too. As you are quiet aware, the Cylons have been busy little metal bastards." Corman stated as Ward thought back to one of his previous assignments in which he crossed the Red Line to take some photos of suspected Cylon activity. There wasn't much to see, but there were dozens of other missions to cross the line, including the botched mission in which Commander Adama was forced to shoot down one of his own pilots. It pained him to see Bill sent to a dying ship after that mission, but the stakes of the mission were too high. It had to be done.

"Admiral." The President continued, "We think that tensions with the Cylons could ignite sometime soon. And when it happens, we'd like to have the bigger stick." The President sat back in his chair and folded his hands across his lap.

"You're probably wondering where you fit in in all of this, Dan." Admiral Corman stood up from his seat with another portfolio. "Two months ago we found a planet opposite of the Red Line and far away from anywhere that anyone would be looking. It's a cold, desolate place with only a small strip of habitable surface. We set up a small base there, and have moved all of the projects out there. Right now, it's nothing more than a few tents and a landing strip, but in time it will become our largest research facility." Corman slid the folder in front of Ward. Inside were pictures of the small base, and a tactical layout of the entire "green" zone of the planet. Along with these pictures were detailed assessments of the surrounding moons, planets, effects of the solar radiation, and any other data that they could possibly have on the system.

"We need a military officer to lead the project, for security and to test the weapons implemented on each of our classes of warships. We've chosen you for your outstanding service records and Admiral Corman's persistence." The President shot a glare at Corman who only smirked. It was obvious that the President didn't like the choice, but Corman had been too much of a pain in the ass to let it go.

"It's an honor, sirs. When will I be deployed?" Admiral Ward rose from his chair as did the President.

"Three months. There's still things we need to patch up on the base." Corman said as they moved towards the doors.

"Great, the battlegroup will be ready." The trio of men stopped and Corman stepped out in front of him and stopped the Admiral.

"You won't be bringing along Battlegroup Saber. Your flag, the Retribution will be coming, but we'll have a whole new fleet just for this operation. The specs for the fleet will be sent to your ship en route to the rendezvous position."

It felt as if someone had just shot his dog. Saber had been his to command for years against the local pirate uprisings. He felt an attachment to each of the ships under his command. But he was still thankful his flag wouldn't be moved from the _Retribution_.

"Of course, sir. It's an honor to be serving on this project." Ward said as he tried to move past the Fleet Admiral.

"One last thing, Dan." Corman caught his arm and locked eyes with the man to reinforce his point. "This project is of the utmost secrecy. We'll the only people within the Colonies that know where you actually are. No one is to know where you are being deployed, no one. Understood?"

"Yes, sir. Not a word will slip my mouth. I'm not about to jeopardize my new command so soon, Peter." Ward laughed off the some what tense situation as did Corman. It was still unsettling that the two most powerful men in the Twelve Colonies have sworn him to such secrecy. Ward shrugged it off and finally moved for the door.

"Ward," The President said as he left the door. "Good luck."

**Battlestar **_**Retribution**_**, enroute to Helios Base.**

Admiral Ward settled into his overly padded chair behind his large oak desk in his personal quarters. He chewed on the end of a cigar, but did not light it. It was a habit he had acquired over the years aboard warships. While in the CIC it was against dozens of Colonial regulations to light up an cigar, no matter the rank. Instead, he would just chew on them while reviewing paperwork at the command table, and he fell into a habit around the rest of the ship.

In front of him lied the specs for his new command, Battlestar Group 86. All together, the Battlegroup consisted of four _Mercury_-Class Battlestars, the _Titan_, _Pacifica_, _Loki_, and _Havoc_, five Valkyrie Class Battlestars, _Nyx_, _Athena_, _Thor_, _Icarus_, and _Emerald_, and his single_ Command Mercury-_Class Battlestar, the Retribution. Their escort consisted of twelve Gunstars, five _Sentinel_-Classes, the _Andromeda_, _Requiem, Reliant, Archer_, _Achilles_, and seven _Paladin-_Classes, _Ares_, _Vulture_, _Hornet_, _Prometheus_, _Predator_, _Kvasir_, and _Essex_.

Also there was a pair Marine Assault ships, the _Nemesis _and _Dawn's Hammer_, tasked with providing ground side security for the scientists, along with one hospital ship, Mercy, and four research vessels, _Pandora_, _Decuma_, _Pericles_, and _Queenstown_. Each of the ships would not only provide security and escort, but would also serve as test subjects themselves. Each of the weapons was going to be needed to be deployed from a Battlestar or their support, and the brass wanted to see that each of the mainline units could deploy them. It seemed to be an over-kill of ships and firepower, but what the spooks in Picon want, they get.

The most interesting, though, had to be one of the Valkyrie Class, the _Nyx_. Its hull was dark, making it impossible to see to the naked eye in space, but that was not what made it special. It was also covered in a carbon compound used on the Stealth Star recon fighters, that would deflect DRADIS scans making it nearly impossible to see on DRADIS. It was a perfect stealth ship, for it did not sacrifice its firepower for stealth. So if it was in trouble, it could shoot its way out as a normal Valkyrie Class Battlestar would.

The internal systems were also much different, including the addition of a forward bridge, instead of a CIC, the one flaw Ward saw in the ship. Large view ports such as the one in the forward bridge of the Nyx tended to weak points in the ship's hull, and with the entire command crew so exposed, the ship could very quickly be sent out of action.

Ward was satisfied with his new command. It was almost three times the size of his last, and hopefully would have a better purpose for the Twelve Colonies. Ward closed the file and awaited for the Retribution to reach Helios.

**Helios Base, Planet Helios. Four days prior to the Fall.**

"It's so frakking cold down here." Lieutenant Scott McKnight said as he walked down the snowy concrete pathways that were hastily constructed almost two years ago. He looked across the parade ground of Helios Base towards the nine large steel buildings that made up the research complex on the base. Behind them was the large hangar that seemed to be upgraded every time he came down from orbit due to its ever expanding needs. The first time he came down to the Helios Base, the hangar was nothing more than a small landing strip with a few tents surrounding it. Now, it was capable of replacing any parts for the Viper MK VIII and it could support over two hundred of the Vipers, not that they had that many pilots groundside, however.

Beyond the hangar, was the "residential" area as they liked to call it. Six months into the project, the brass realized that the civilian personnel couldn't operate as well being cut off from their families and homes for so long. So to keep the civilian sector on track, the military quietly shipped in the families of close to one thousand of the civilians. Quickly, their small project turned from a research base, into a small city and it has been growing ever since. Close to four thousand people now lived in the base.

"Quit complaining, at least there is fresh air and a place to stretch our legs down here." Lieutenant Jessica Keen said coming up to his side.

Scott let out a little chuckle at his friend's comment as they continued down the concrete path. "That's a good point . You always know how to find the silver lining, Jess."

The ECO laughed and rubbed her hands together trying to warm them up. "I have to, it's the ECO's job to be an optimist. You Raptor pilots just find ways that things will go wrong." Scott laughed again as he walked down the path with his ECO. Ever since they had been paired together almost four years ago, they had been closer than any one else at Helios. But now their enlistments were up, and they had both decided to leave the Colonial Fleet.

Admiral Ward had asked them both to report to his office planet side before they left Helios. Probably to try and sway them back into service. The man was crazy about the Fleet. Some say he left his wife for the Fleet, but he always thought that was too far. Ward was a good man, and had always thought so.

After passing through several security checkpoints, the pair was finally heading down into the deep bunkers of Helios base. The MP escorting them had said that the Admiral's office was on the lower levels, almost one hundred meters below the surface of the planet. A bit much for a base that no one aside from the inhabitants and a few select people in the Colonies knew about, Scott thought, but it never hurt to protect your assets.

"Well, this is it. Good luck to you both with the Admiral." The MP saluted the two officers and went on his way.

"That just makes this a whole lot better. MPs wishing us luck." Jessica laughed as she tapped slightly on the door.

"MPs are fools, they don't know the Admiral like we do. It'll be fine. Soon we'll be back on Caprica living the good life." Scott pulled his arm around her shoulder and laughed a bit to lift her sprit.

"Right, I can't wait. When I got shipped out here, I thought that I'd never see the Colonies again. I don't know why, I just did." Jessica replied pulling him in for a hug.

"No, we'll see them again. Our homes, our families, our friends." He pulled back and looked at her with a smile. "We're going home, Jess."

Helios Base, Planet Helios. Four days prior to the Fall.

"But Admiral, nearly ninety five percent of the Colonial Fleet has been upgraded with these new systems." Admiral Ward sat back in his large chair, placing his face in his hands. These civilians that the president had been sending over were getting on his nerves.

"Listen, I don't care that the Fleet has been upgraded. My Battlegroup is staying here until the project is complete. We've only got a few more months until Doctor Allen has completed his work." The man's face flushed with anger, most likely because they had been butting heads with one another since he had arrived three days ago. It didn't bother the Admiral, though. This was his Battlegroup, and he would do what he wanted with it.

"Listen, Admiral, we could just take a few of your ships at a time and upgrade the-." Ward waved his hand in irritation. These defense spooks just didn't take no for an answer.

"Taking even just a handful of my ships would put them in an dry dock for a three month overhaul. That would delay the project for several months. It just isn't probable to delay the project so long." Ward said as a finality. "That's all, you're dismissed." The man nodded and walked out of the room without saying another word.

The Admiral looked around the small office. Concrete walls, almost no decorations aside from one picture of his family hanging on the wall. He hated having to come down to the planet's surface and sit in this office. Actually, he hated being off of his ship period. His wife used to tell him that he spent more time aboard that ship than the house they had on Virgon. It was true, and that is why she left him.

He had climbed the ranks of the Colonial Fleet through extreme dedication to it. During the first Cylon War, he made his name when he single handedly brought down a pair of Baseships with his Battlestar, the _Orion _in a trap he had laid over Tuaron as just a Major. Then he led the rallying defense of the Aquarion and stone walled the Cylons there. After the war, he led a campaign to destroy pirates that were terrorizing some of the Colonies in Operation Sideswipe, but through all of that, it left little time for his family. His wife left him several years ago and took his three children with her.

Ward stood up from his desk and looked over the picture of his family. Just because he was away so much didn't mean he didn't love them. He loved his family more than anything in the Colonies, but just could never show them enough.

His two sons had tried to follow in his footsteps and join the Colonial Fleet, but his wife wouldn't let them. Instead they moved to Caprica and opened a bar there. From their last letter, which was close to a year ago, they were doing well there and had made a name for themselves.

His youngest daughter, Tania, however, had stayed on Leonis. She always tried her best to stay in touch with him, always sending letters talking whenever she could. Last he had heard, she was working for a prominent doctor as a PA. She always wanted to be a doctor, and he prayed that she would make there one day.

Ward returned to his desk and decided to finish up what paper work he had left so that he could return to his flagship, the Retribution. The reports were picking up since they were nearing the end of the project and the President wanted to know how everything was faring.

Just as Ward was getting comfortable again, there was a knock at his door. "Enter." He said, sliding the papers off of his desk and into the drawer. Two of his officers entered the office and snapped crisp salutes. "Ah, Lieutenants McKnight and Keen. I suppose I was expecting you both." Both Lieutenants stood more rigid and looked very uncomfortable. "I know what you are asking, but I want to hear it from you two in person."

The two looked at each other for a few seconds before Lieutenant Scott McKnight stepped forward. "Sir, both of our enlistments are up. We are looking to leave the Fleet."

The Admiral sighed loudly. "You're both a damn good Raptor team. I'd hate to lose you."

"Yes, sir, but we feel that we've put in six good years for the Fleet, it's just time for us to move on." McKnight said. Ward scratched the stubble of his beard and stood up.

"Well then I can't keep you here. A civilian freighter will be unloading supplies until tomorrow. It will take you back to the Colonies." The two Lieutenants nodded and snapped crisp salutes to the Admiral.

"Thank you, sir. It has been an honor to serve with you." Lieutenant Keen finished her salute and shook the man's hand, as did Lieutenant McKnight.

"Good luck to both of you." With that the Raptor team left the small office and the Admiral sat back just to watch the door for a while. They were good officers, and he hated to let them go, but not everyone could lose their loved ones like he did.

**Battlestar **_**Retribution**_**. Two days prior to the Fall.**

Lieutenant James Atlas stood in the center of the long hangar deck, staring at the row of Vipers before him. The light gray metal shown dully in the hangar's overhead lights. It had always calmed him to look at their steeds that carried them into the dark unknown. The planes were so graceful, so elegant in space that they reminded him of the horses that had once carried the great warriors into battle long before man traveled the stars.

"James! Hey James!" Joker was broken from his stupor when his friend jogged up to his side. Lieutenant Megan Fel grabbed his arm and tugged him towards her gently. The two had been friends since flight school almost a year and a half ago. "Come on big man. Today is your big day." James dropped his eyes and smiled while giving into Avery's pull. Today was his one thousandth landing, one of the biggest accomplishment a pilot could make aboard a Battlestar.

"Easy, Trix. I'm coming." He laughed as she continued to drag him out of the hangar. "Aww. Did I hurt the big bad Joker?" She joked as they left the hangar deck.

The two pilots entered the normally quiet pilot's quarters to find the all of the Warhawk Squadron Viper pilots waiting to surprise them. "Hey he finally crashed down onto the deck one thousand times!" Lieutenant Jacob Falls yelled when they entered the room. James braced himself, but Falls still overtook him wrapped him up, embracing him. When Jacob finally dropped him to his feet, two more pilots were on top of him in an instant. Both were grinning wildly as they smeared paint onto his forehead in large block numbers "1000".

"To Joker and his one thousandth landing!" Their CAG, Major Dayton Hawke, stepped atop the table that was centered in the middle of the cramped quarters holding a small tin glass. Another pilot handed James a glass as well. Each of the pilots called back to him, "To the thousandth!" They all drank together and the warm liquid burned as it ran down Joker's throat. The second he brought the glass down, it was filled again. The pilot's ritual continued for several minutes, toasting to one another and their great Battlestar _Retribution_.

"Attention on deck!" The shout echoed throughout the pilot's quarters. The entire deck fell silent as Admiral Ward stepped into the room followed closely behind by Commander Allyson Shard. The two officers stood silently in front of the pilots who stood at rigid attention. James felt the normal butterflies flutter in his stomach that came when the Admiral was near. Despite being stationed on the Retribution for close to two years, he couldn't feel comfortable around the man.

Finally, the Admiral cracked a smile and said, "As you were pilots. Lieutenant Atlas, where are you?" Grinning widely, Joker stepped forward and snapped a salute to the Admiral. Still smiling, the Admiral returned his salute and held out his hand to the him. "Congratulations, Joker." The pilot grabbed his hand and shook it furiously.

"Thank you, sir." Megan was leaning against her bunk on the other side of the room, trying to suppress her laughs. He had to look like a fool in front of the Admiral.

"This is a grand thing, Lieutenant. You make us all proud." Commander Shard picked up one of the drinks and raised it to make a toast. "This day belongs to you, Lieutenant. Make the most of it." The pilots cheered and each of them drank again.

The Admiral stood atop the table and raised his full glass high. "To the pilots of the Battlestar _Retribution_, and the Colonial Fleet. Let you always be our shield for humanity, and our sword against the enemy!"

In a much more serious tone, the pilots acknowledged the Admiral's toast and drank again. The sword and shield, that's what they were, James thought, and nothing would slip through them.

**Battlestar **_**Gladiator**_**. One day prior to the Fall.**

"Gods damn it!" Commander Andrew Weaver slammed his hand on the command table.

"Sir, the systems are new. We're working out problems with the new Command Navigation Programs, but that isn't the problem." Lieutenant Marcel answered with a hint of annoyance in his voice.

"Then what is the problem, lieutenant?" Weaver asked as he dropped his face into his hands. This shakedown cruise was going to drive him insane.

"Sir, when the CNP was put aboard our ship the were forced to network all of the computers…"

Weaver looked up at the young lieutenant before speaking, "Yes, I'm well aware that our frakking computers are networked, lieutenant. Get to the Gods damn point." Weaver was beyond furious that the systems had crashed for the fourth time on their so called easy shakedown run.

"Yes, sir. Our systems are older and they can't handle the amount of networking that they brass is throwing into the Gladiator. The old computers try and keep up, but they can't and crash."

"Then what do we do about it, lieutenant?" Weaver stood to face the man.

"Uh, well sir, I'm not in a position to make the decision, but the ship's computers need to be unnetworked until we make it back to the Scoripan Shipyards. The systems will just continue to crash if they aren't. The crew is used to having unnetworked computers so it shouldn't be too much of a problem." Marcel took a step back from the towering Commander and added one last bit, "But that is just what I would do, sir."

"The frakking brass sent me out here to fix the damn ship and I have to pull out all the wires again. I can't frakking do that, lieutenant."

The lights in the CIC, as well as the computer screens all flickered for a few moments and went out. Ten long seconds passed before all of the systems came back online. The entire crew stood silently looking at their Commander.

"Don't just frakking stand there!" He yelled and slammed his fist against the command table again. "Unnetwork the damn computers!" He shot a glare towards his tactical officer. "You'd better be right about this, Marcel."

"Yes, sir. It'll work." Marcel turned quickly and moved to his station to begin work on the computer systems.

Colonel Zachary Spears strutted through the hatch of the CIC with a smirk on his face as moved his way over to the command table. The XO was the only one that could calm the Commander's temper on the ship, and everyone knew to stay out of the COs way before the XO got to him.

"I see you've taken a liking to our new Tactical Officer." The Colonel shot a glance over his shoulder to look at the officer working hard at his station. "You making friends, Commander?'

The Commander let out a grunt of what could have either been humor, or disagreement, even he didn't know. "If he's wrong I'll have his ass like the last one. What frak was that kid's name?" Weaver scratched his head for a few seconds before Spears answered.

"Portman. You'd know if you didn't throw him off the ship after just two weeks." Spears said with a hint of accusation in his voice.

"The kid was slow and needed to be gone. Just like this kid's probably going to find himself out of here too." Weaver said looking down to his reports.

"Sir, all systems have been unnetworked. Should we plot a jump now?" Lieutenant Marcel called from his station.

"The kid's got balls you know." Zach started, "He's telling you what to do now."

Weaver glared at his XO who was grinning like a fool at the Commander. "This is the moment of truth. He fraks this up he's gone."

Spears said nothing, but waved his hand as if allowing the Commander to proceed with his trial.

"Do it, lieutenant." Weaver held his breath as the lieutenant plotted a series of numbers into his console . He double checked and then triple checked the numbers before plugging them into the system.

"Attention all hands, prepare for jump. Systems have been unnetworked, all crews should compensate for this now." Marcel spoke through the PA system and simultaneously plugged the jump key into the system. "All hands prepare to jump in, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, now."

Weaver felt the usual discomfort of the ship jumping turn his stomach inside out and then back in again as they reentered normal space. The crew fell silent for a few long seconds, waiting for the systems to fail as they had with each previous jump. Nothing. All systems stayed online. The crew cheered as a sign of relief that their ship could once again, get from point A to point B.

"Well looks like the boy gets to stay." Spears laughed and looked over at the ecstatic tactical officer. "Good work, lieutenant."

Again, Weaver let out an inaudible grunt and looked down at his paper work. "The boy can stay for now."

Spears let out a short laugh and slapped his hand on the commander's shoulder. "Getting a little soft on us are you?"

Weaver couldn't help but laugh a little himself. "Don't count on it, Colonel."

**Battlestar **_**Retribution **_**Combat War Games in orbit over Helios. One hour prior to the Fall.**

Come on you son of a bitch. Lieutenant James Atlas pushed on the throttle to try and keep up with the new Viper MK VIII he was pursuing. The MK VII he was in was a damn good interceptor, but these new MK VIIIs they had developed over the last two years were a whole new level.

"This is Joker, I'm taking the shot." Atlas squeezed the trigger on his Viper at the enemy he was engaging. In the last second, the MK VIII pulled a gut wrenching maneuver and whisked out of his fire. "Frak!" He yelled as the enemy slipped from his grasp.

"Gods damnit, Joker!" His wing man yelled to him as he pulled farther onto his wing. "Check your three o'clock we've got incoming." Another pair of MK VIIIs pushed closer towards them.

"I got it, you take this little bastard." Joker replied as he pulled his Viper around his wing man to engage the new targets.

The enemy Vipers were still too far out, he'd have to wait until they were in maximum firing range for his guns. Fortunately, or unfortunately, he didn't really know, that wasn't more than a few seconds. His enemy closed the gap between them in a blur of motion, even the DRADIS was having a bit of trouble keeping up. "In my sights, firing." Again, Joker squeezed the trigger, but this time he watched as the dummy tracer rounds shut down his opponent's Viper.

There was no time to celebrate his small victory. The other pilot flipped his Viper about and began to engage Joker. The two fighters were now heading straight for one another, guns firing the whole way. Closer, closer the Vipers drew to one another. When they were a mere meter away, Joker jerked back on his flight stick and rolled his Viper away from the enemy he was playing chicken with. It set him in prime position to turn the fighter about since he was already half way through his maneuver. In a matter of seconds, this little fight would be over. I've got you now you little bastard. He thought as he tried to pull his Viper end over end to get on his enemies six.

"What?" It didn't even occur to him that he had spoken. The hostile Viper had already spun about and was heading for him. "Frak!" He yelled again as he succumbed to being the pursued once again and jammed his throttle forward.

His thrusters ignited as he tore through empty space and away from his attacker. The tracers flew all around the canopy of his Viper, but none of them connected. Every maneuver, every trick, everything he knew he was doing to keep this enemy from tearing him apart.

"Zip! I need you help out here. I've got one on my six and I can't shake this bastard." He waited a few seconds and jerked his Viper yet again to avoid a burst from his pursuer. "Zip respond! Zip!" Again there was no reply, and he was running out of tricks to keep the hostile at bay.

Joker glanced down at his DRADIS as he put the Viper into a high Gee turn to stay alive. All forty three Viper MK VIIs had faded from the DRADIS screen. Just my Gods damn luck. Everyone else gets to get killed while I'm frakking stuck with twenty six frakking MK VIIIs. The red markers began swarming the DRADIS around him. This won't end well. Might as well try and take a few of the bastards with me while I can. But he couldn't with this one bugger right on his ass. Time to stop running I guess.

He pulled his Viper around and squeezed the trigger the whole way spraying rounds as he went. His enemy continued its blind charge, but Joker had something else in mind. He pushed his Viper vertical to move out of the fire and hit his throttle putting them into another chicken fight. Let's hope this asshole will move. At the very last second, he pulled his Viper around and let the momentum carry his Viper straight towards his enemy. If his target broke and moved out of the way, then he'd fall straight into his firing solution, if he didn't, they'd both be gone.

Joker closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable crash between the two Vipers. He looked up to see the MK VIII graze the top of his canopy and spiral out of control right into his sights. Gotcha. He fired and the dummy round connected with the hostile, putting him out of action.

"Take that you frakking piece of shit!" He yelled over an open wireless channel. The victory was, yet again, shot lived. The alarm blared in his cockpit and all of his controls went dead. "Gods damnit." He muttered to himself. Seconds later another MK VIII blew past his canopy.

"Always check your six, Joker." The ever present voice of his Squadron commander filled his cockpit. He'd never hear the end of it from him.

"Attention all pilots, the simulation is over. I repeat, simulation is over. Restoring power to all flight systems now." The Retribution's communications officer rang in his ear.

"How'd we do, Katie?" Joker laughed as he asked the Communications Officer.

His comment was received with a laugh of her own. "Fourteen kills. Better than last time, but still shit, just like you, Joker."

"Fourteen out of thirty two, not bad. I can take that." He joked back to the officer.

"Yeah right, Joker. We got our asses handed to us." Dante Ambrose pulled onto his wing.

"No, no my little friend. You got your ass handed to you. I out scored you all, so you know what that means." James laughed through the open wireless channel.

"Joker, stow it. You may have gotten the most kills, but your squadron was still torn to pieces out there. This isn't a time for celebration." Captain Forsell pulled onto his wing. Joker shut off the wireless and sighed to himself. The woman never got off his ass, ever. "I want your ass on the deck, now."

Lieutenant Atlas pulled his Viper to the front of the formation. "Retribution, Joker. Requesting permission to land."

"Permission, granted, Joker. Call the ball." The Landing Signals Officer called off.

"Roger, Retribution I have the ball." Joker went through the landing checks and touched his Viper down on the deck of the Retribution. The deck gang pushed the ladder up to his Viper and handed him the check list. He signed off and handed the checklist back to the specialist.

Before he could even reach the deck, Captain Forsell was on top of him. His Squadron Commander grabbed his arm and led him to the side of the deck away from the knuckle draggers. "Joker, what the frak was that out there?"

"Well, sir that was a combat war game." Atlas replied smirking.

"Don't get cute with me, Joker. You left your wingman to go chasing enemies and he was killed." She pushed the pilot back onto the bulkhead. "You don't frakking leave friends out there to fend for themselves." Forsell stepped back and let the Lieutenant go. "You're a hot shot, Atlas, and you're good, really frakking good, but it's going to your head."

Joker stepped back and from the Captain. She'd never been on him like this before for the last few weeks he'd been pushing his pilots to be better and better.

"There's a frakking storm coming, Joker. You'd better be up to the task." He just barely caught the Captain quietly say this as she walked away.

Joker stood almost motionless as he thought about what the Captain had said. He didn't move until Lieutenant Ambrose grabbed him on the shoulder. "You good, Joker?" The man broke from his blank stare and looked at his friend.

"Yeah, yeah I'm good." He took one last glance at the Captain before following his friend out of the hangar deck. "It's just something the Captain said."

"What was it?" Dante asked pulling the hatch open.

He moved through the door and shook his head. "Hopefully, nothing important. Come on let's get some rest." With that, Joker closed the hatch and moved on.

**Battlestar **_**Retribution**_**. Thirty-five minutes after the opening attacks.**

Admiral Ward lied back into his bunk, sighing a little in relief.

It felt as if he had just fallen asleep when there was a frantic tapping on his hatch. Ward groaned and rolled off of his bunk stumbling with sleep still in his eyes towards the hatch. A Petty Officer stood in the door with a slip of paper in his cold sweaty hands.

"A priority message from Fleet Headquarters on Picon." His voice was shaky, but Ward disregared his odd behavior because he was too tired.

"At ease, Petty Officer." The man nervously shook his head and stood in the door way.

Again, Ward rubbed his eyes so that he could focus on the slip of paper he was just handed. The message was simple, but he couldn't, or didn't want to understand them.

ATTENTION ALL COLONIAL UNITS. CYLON ATTACK OF THE COLONIES IS UNDERWAY. THIS IS NOT A DRILL.

Ward dropped the slip and reached for his duty jacket. Still pulling it on as he walked out of the door way he turned to the Petty Officer. "Get to your station, sailor. We're at war."

The boy nodded, saluted and ran the opposite way of the CIC. Ward moved as fast as he possibly could to the CIC. War again?

The Admiral almost ran into the sliding doors of the CIC because they didn't open quickly enough for how fast he was moving.

"Orders, sir?" Allyson stood at the command table, cool as ever. The first person on board that was.

"Bring the Fleet up to Condition One and get me a priority one channel to Picon Fleet Headquarters." Allyson nodded and picked up the PA system on the command table.

"Action stations, actions stations. Set Condition One throughout the ship. This is not a drill." The XO repeated the string of orders several times before placing the phone back in its place.

Lieutenant Katie Martel swiveled in her seat to face t Admiral. "Channel open, sir."

Ward nodded and picked the handset up. Hopefully, Fleet HQ will have sorted out most of the intel on the size of the attacks. Ward wasn't anxious to get into another fight, but if there was one, he'd have to be in it. The gruffly voice of Fleet Admiral Corman cracked through the wireless a few seconds later.

"Peter, what the frak is happening out there?" Corman didn't respond for a few seconds, but he heard him talking to someone else with him. A slight rattle was heard on the other side of the line as if a bomb had hit the solid defenses of the Headquarters.

"Ward, the Cylons have blown through our defenses here. The entire fleet over Picon is gone." Ward nearly dropped the handset right there. Last he knew there was close to three dozen Battlestars stationed over Picon. Corman continued through the sounds of bombs hitting the bunkers, "They're nuking the planet, Dan. Queenstown, Necropolis, all of the major cities have been hit with nukes. We don't know how long we'll last here."

Corman seemed frantic, as would anyone being fed the reports they were receiving. "Where do you need me, sir. We're ready to go here."

The Fleet Admiral was yelling again at someone else in the room with him. The rattles over the wireless were getting louder now. "Dan, dig your head in there and don't enter the fight." Ward thought he didn't hear Admiral right.

"Peter we can't just sit out here.." Ward was abruptly cut off by Corman.

"That's a frakking order, Admiral Ward. Those weapons could give us a fighting chance later. Hold out and wait for further orders." Another rattle came through the wireless followed by a loud crash. Corman didn't respond for a long time.

"Admiral Corman…" Nothing over the line, "Corman… Peter!" The wireless stayed dead despite his repeated attempts to hail Picon. Ward spun around to the communications officer.

"Line went dead, sir." She stopped for a few seconds and checked over the screens again. "I can't seem to reach them again. All communications coming out of Picon are dead, Admiral."

Ward's heart sank. There was billions of people on Picon, and now it was likely they are gone. Almost immediately, his mind shot to his family. If they were nuking Picon they could very well be hitting the other Colonies as well.

"Sir, ship commanders are requesting jump vectors. They're all ready to fight." Lieutenant Yvonne Sives tapped her ear-piece ready to transmit the orders.

"All ships stand down FTL. We're not going anywhere." The Lieutenant took a double take at the Admiral. Lieutenant Shawn shifted uneasily at his panel. None of them wanted to stay here. "Admiral Corman gave me orders to stay here and defend the base on Helios. That's what I intend to do. Continue to monitor all channels and if anything comes through, I want to know. Have a Raptor prepped to launch when I reach the Hangar Deck." Ward started for the doors of the CIC. "Allyson walk with me. Lieutenant Sives, you have the conn."

Ward moved swiftly down the halls of the Battlestar. Crewmen stepped aside and saluted the flag officer in their hastiness to prepare the ship for war. Commander Shard quickened her pace to come aside the Admiral. "Can I ask where you are headed?"

"To the _Nyx_. I've got to see what is happening out there." Ward turned a corner sharply and stopped the Commander. "When I spoke to Corman the line was cut off. The Headquarters is hardened against EMPS so that they won't lose contact with the rest of the Fleet. You'd have to destroy the entire bunker to cut it off." Allyson stood motionless for a few seconds. "This could be the end game for us, Allyson. For humanity."

Allyson nodded and took a deep breath, trying to take in everything that was happening. "What are my orders, Admiral?"

"Keep the Fleet on high alert and if the Cylons jump in, defend the base as long as you can. If we don't report back, inform Commander Harvard aboard the _Pacifica _that he is in command." Allyson nodded. She was a good officer and he was glad to have her with him. Ward started to turn towards the hangar deck, but Allyson stopped him.

"Good luck out there, Dan. Find out who is still out there." Ward nodded and began heading towards the hangar.

**ONE HOUR LATER, Battlestar **_**Nyx**_

Raptor 438 touched down softly onto the deck of the Battlestar _Nyx_. Ward hadn't even seen the Nyx until just a few seconds before they touched down on her flight pod. After the Raptor was taxied down to the hangar area and the door lifted open, Ward stepped out onto Battlestar's deck for the second time since the Battlestar came under his command. The first was just days after he had arrived at Helios and was fascinated with the stealth ship. This time, however, he would be seeing the stealth systems in action.

The hangar bay was unusually empty, void of the bustling commotion that the Retribution's had each time the ship was at condition one. Instead of dozens of Vipers being armed and fueled, four stealthstar fighters sat just in front of the tubes, ready to fly.

He must have noticed Ward looking at the stealthstars because when Captain Jose Burnett met the Admiral on the deck he said, "We're a stealth ship, sir. No need for a full contingent of Vipers. We've just got these four stealthstars and a squadron of Vipers in the starboard landing bay." Ward looked the man over once after returning his salute. The man spoke in a calm and to the point kind of way. His eyes shifted to everything, analyzing everything. The patches on his flight suit bore that of the 413th "Shadows" Stealth Squadron.

"Understandable, I hope we won't need to use you for this sortie." Burnett nodded, but was obviously surprised that they were heading out. He hadn't informed the crew of the _Nyx _that he planned on going to the Colonies.

"Right this way, sir. I'll take you to the CIC." Ward nodded and followed the Captain down the corridors of the Battlestar. On the Retribution, it took a good fifteen minutes to reach the CIC from one of the flight pods, but the _Nyx _was much smaller so it only took a few minutes.

When the Admiral entered the _Nyx_'s CIC, he had to take a second glance at it. The whole area was different from any other Battlestar in the Fleet. The command chair and the forward view port were the strangest of all to him, and he figured he would never get used to it.

Commander Espino snapped a crisp salute to the Admiral when he entered. Olivia was a rare find in the Colonial Fleet. She was one of the best intelligence officers, but she also had a grasp of fleet tactics, which many spooks failed to understand. And, like him, most fleet officers failed to understand fully the art of espionage beyond the point of reading what the spooks brought in.

"Commander, we're heading into the Colonies. Plot a jump to Caprica." Olivia smiled and nodded to the Admiral. He could see she wanted to get back to the Colonies to asses the situation just like him. The officers snapped to work and began to plot the jump and prepare the ship to jump.

"Any word from Fleet HQ?" Espino settled into her command chair and Ward gripped the side of the chair to await the jump. They both knew that normally Ward would be in command of the _Nyx_, but the stealth ship was a rare case. The intelligence officer knew more of the ship's systems than he could ever hope to know in a lifetime.

The Admiral tried to speak in a low tone so not to attract attention to their conversation. "Picon is gone."

"Gone? You mean we've already retreated off world?"

Ward scratched the side of his face trying to put the words easily. "No…" The Commander turned to look at the Admiral. "Picon has been destroyed. What we've heard is that the Cylons are nuking the worlds. I have to see for myself."

Espino let her mouth fall open slightly as her gaze slowly fell to the floor. It was hard news for anyone to take, but for a native of that world, it couldn't be easy. She was only broken from her thoughts when the navigation officer called off that the ship was prepared to jump.

Nodding, the Commander gave the signal to jump the ship. The countdown was followed by the gut turning feeling of a faster than light jump. The ship reappeared in normal space over the colony of Caprica. Immediately, collision alarms began blaring while Ward watched through the forward view port as a Battlestar's flight pod drifted towards them.

"Evasive maneuvers! Full reverse thrusters!" Espino shouted as the debris flew towards them. The Battlestar shifted violently backwards and arced downward sharply out of the way of the debris. "Status!" The officers fumbled with their consoles trying to get a report to their Commander.

"Ma'am, we're picking up a large amount of debris over Caprica. Nearly all of the hulls are that of Colonial Battlestars." One of the officers called out. Caprica had one of the larger defense forces in orbit, at anytime they would have two to three Battlestar Groups in orbit. If they were taken out so easily then there would be no hope for the rest of the Colonies.

"DRADIS." Ward called out wanting to see the tactical situation. One of the view screens flicked on with the DRADIS layout. Dozens of dots representing Cylon Basestars surrounded the planet. A trio Battlestars moved in to engage the Cylon forces. The Nyx shifted so that her viewports got a glimpse of the skirmish. The DRADIS showed the names of the ships as the _Acheron, Sovereign_, and _Cerberus_ all _Mercury_ Classes.

The Battlestars prepared to engage a single Basestar that was bearing down on them. However, just before the Battlestars fired their opening shots, they seemed to just lose power and begin drifting. The Cylons began moving closer to the Colonial forces. Vipers drifted harmlessly towards their Raider adversaries.

"What the frak are they doing?" Commander Espino sat forward to get a better glimpse of the battle.

The single Basestar fired a full salvo of missiles towards the Battlestars. Ward was waiting for the AAA systems to flare up and destroy the missiles in a massive cloud of flak, but it never came. Hundreds of missiles struck across the bows of the Battlestars. What was just minutes ago a formidable Battlegroup, was gone without even putting up a fight.

"Lieutenant scan the area and see if the Cylons are launching some sort of weapon to disarm our ships." The Admiral moved forward to the front of the CIC and looked out of the view port. Hundreds of flashes went up across the surface Caprica. All he could think of was his two sons in Caprica City. He stared out into the vast opening watching everything he knew go up into a ball of flames.

"Admiral, no weapons were deployed that we know of, but we did pick up a signal being sent off just before the Cylons engaged."

"Isolate that signal and see if it is shutting down our systems or something like that." If the Cylons had a signal that could shut down everything the Colonial Fleet had, then that would explain how they were able to destroy Picon and Caprica so quickly.

"Aye, sir." The lieutenant hadn't looked away from his panel since they had jumped in system. They were all scared, even him. There might not be a way out of this one.

"Sirs, message coming in from Admiral Nagala's Battlegroup over Virgon." Both officers were anxious to hear of Nagala's counter attack. Ward snatched the message from the communications officer before the man could read it.

ENTIRE BATTLEGROUP DESTROYED… ALL SURVIVORS ARE TO SCATTER AND USE GUERRILLA TACTICS… CASUALTIES ARE AS FOLLOWS…

BATTLESTAR ATLAINTIA- DESTROYED

BATTLESTAR NIGHT FLIGHT- DESTROYED

BATTLESTAR SOLARIA- DESTROYED...

The list continued on, but Ward didn't bother reading the message. He began to truly believe that they were alone now. For all he knew, they were the last ones left in the Twelve Worlds. He handed the paper off to Commander Espino and watched as her tan skin flushed white.

"Prepare to jump back to Helios. I've got to address the Fleet." Ward took one final glance out the view port. Caprica, Picon, Virgon. All of them were confirmed destroyed. It wouldn't be long before the rest were.

**Passenger Ship **_**Aurora**_**. Two hours after the opening attacks.**

Scott flipped through a copy of the Colonial Times that he picked up from one of the stewardess that had passed by. He'd already read the issue once before, but there wasn't much else to do aboard the Aurora. He was reading an article about one of the various singers that had been arrested for possession of drugs. It was laughable that these people were always getting arrested, yet people still throw thousands of cubits at them, but if a Colonial officer were to caught then they would be torn apart by the media.

Scott stretched his neck and looked out of the window next to him. These trips always took forever to get to their destinations without FTLs. Civilian passenger ships tried not to use their FTLs if they didn't have to. The passenger liners got too many complaints from people because of the discomfort of FTL, and not to mention there was always a risk of losing a ship mid-jump.

Out the window he saw the fading blue dot that was Virgon. So far their trip had taken them from Helios to Oasis to decrease the chances of someone asking questions about where the ship was coming from. From there, they loaded the passengers aboard and then started out for Virgon .Their route showed that they were to stop at almost every Colony on their way to Caprica, and of course Caprica had to be the end destination. In total, the trip was to take close to twenty-nine hours.

Jessica groaned as she sat up from her seat. She had been sleeping like a baby for the last three hours curled up in her seat. "Have we reached Caprica yet?" She rubbed the sleep from her eyes.

Scott laughed and turned away from the window. "No, we haven't even reached Gemenon yet."

"Fantastic. These passenger ships take too long get anywhere." She sat forward and pulled off her jacket and tossed it onto the seat across from her. She stood up from her seat and stretched her back. "I'm tired of being here, Scott."

"You know I'd love to do something about that, but I'm not the pilot anymore." She grabbed him by the hand and stood him up.

"Are we going somewhere?" She grabbed her jacket and tossed it over her shoulder as she started to lead him down the aisles of the Aurora towards the rear of the ship.

"I just want to look around a little." She said looking back at him for a second and smiling.

Looking around, they both were out of place. When they left they hadn't had any civilian clothing so they were in their duty blues now.

They hadn't gotten far when the PA screeched above them. "Attention passengers. I apologize for this, but there seems to be a Colony wide crisis and the president has called a stop to all civilian traffic. Again, I apologize for delays." The passengers all groaned loudly and several passengers began expressing their complaints out loud.

"The president wouldn't put a hold on traffic unless something big was going down." Jessica turned around to face Scott. Her voice was full of worry, and her face showed the same thing. She always seemed to see things before he did, so when she was worried he was worried.

"No kidding. Terrorist attack?" If the terrorists had hit something big then that might have been enough to hold the traffic, whatever it was, it big.

Jessica pulled her jacket back on and started to button it back up. "I hope not, I don't want to see on the vids that a thousand people were killed by the Soldiers of the One or something like that."

The hold on traffic hadn't been called for fifteen minutes before another announcement had been made. "Attention passengers…" There was a break in the captains voice as if he was choked up. "Attention passengers, there has been an update. The Colonial Military issued this to the general public ten minutes ago." Both Scott and Jessica both looked at one another. The Military never made statements unless the head of the government was incapacitated. "There is a Cylon attack underway against all Colonies. All civilian traffic is to hold and await instructions from the Military. That is all."

The PA broke and the two officers stared wide eyed at one another. A group of people sitting across from them stood up and came over to them. "You're with the military is it true?"

Scott stood up and made his way around the woman. "I'm not sure, but I'll find out, ma'am." Jessica stood up as well and followed him down the halls.

"Scott, what are you doing?" The pair tried to fight their way through the panicking civilians that were flooding the isles trying to find out what happened.

"I'm going to talk to the Captain." Scott pushed a man aside as he came to the cockpit which, to his dismay, had a small crowd of people trying to get into the cockpit. A lone stewardess was trying to hold them back. Scott pushed aside everyone, and once they saw his uniform they moved aside and started to ask him questions. When he reached the stewardess she sigh a breath of relief.

"Thank the Gods you're here. The Captain will want to talk to you." She slid open the doors and the pair entered the cockpit.

The co-pilot turned around and tapped the pilot on the shoulder. "Rob, Colonial Officers."

The pilot looked up quickly and stood up to meet them. "Thank the frakking Gods you two are here. We're getting reports that Cylons are bombing some of our worlds." The man paused as if trying to formulate something to say, finally he sighed and looked at the officers. "I don't have a clue what to do."

"Scott walked up to the man and placed his hand on his shoulder as he moved past him. "You've done good, Captain." Scott quickly looked over the controls of the ship. He'd never even attempted to fly something of this size, but the controls didn't seem too different from a Raptor. "Jess, get on the wireless and try to figure out the magnitude of this attack."

She was already on the wireless sorting through the constant chatter across the open wireless.

Several minutes passed in total silence as the reports came over the speakers. "This is Raptor 287 to the passenger ship Aurora. Please respond." Jess looked up to Scott who nodded and tapped the wireless.

"This is Lieutenant Scott McKnight aboard the Aurora. It's great to hear your voice 287."

A small laugh came over the wireless and the woman's voice followed. "It's good to hear you too, Aurora. Lieutenant Sharon Valerii, I'll escort you back to the President's Fleet."

Scott looked at the others in the cockpit, they had figured the government had been completely destroyed. "I wasn't aware President Adar made it out."

There was a short break as the FTL coordinates were sent to their ship. "Adar didn't, Laura Rosiin is in charge now."

Scott wasn't familiar with the name, but the co-pilot blurted out, "The Secretary of Education?" He shook his head and walked to the back of the cabin. "We're so frakked…" He muttered.

"Yeah, a frakking joke right?" Valerii said, "We're jumping in two minutes."

Scott flicked his head and the captain began preparing to jump the ship, "Wilco, 287 we'll be ready. And again, thanks for the rescue."

**Battlestar **_**Gladiator**_**. Two hours after the opening attacks.**

"Sir, message from the _Atlantia_. Admiral Nagala has taken control of the Colonial Fleet and is preparing for a counter attack over Virgon." Colonel Spears held the note in his hand for a few more seconds and dropped it down on to the command table. "There is no denying it now then, Fleet HQ is gone."

Weaver smashed his hand down onto the command table. "Colonel, respond to Admiral Nagala and tell him we're frakking bringing this boat to the fight. I'm eager for some payback."

"What?" Spears asked surprised at the Commander's orders. "I'd love to get into the fight too, but that's not going to happen without some more bullets."

Weaver grunted and tossed the message onto the command table. Fleet HQ had sent them on the shakedown run with just enough ordnance to handle a pirate frigate or a handful of captured fighters, not a full on fleet to fleet engagement.

"Frak," Weaver pushed himself away from the Command Table and began to walk towards the rear of the CIC. "I know, but I can't just frakking sit here."

"Commander, message coming through from the _Atlantia_." Marcel turned around from his position to the center of the CIC.

"Patch it through here." Weaver took the handset from the side of the command table. "This is _Gladiator _Actual go ahead _Atlantia_." Nagala went through the standard authorization procedures to make sure there was a clear line to the _Gladiator_.

"Commander, Fleet HQ is gone, along with a large portion of the Twelve Colonies." Weaver's heart sank with the painful news. "There is something I need you to get for me, Commander."

He hoped for the Admiral to need the _Gladiator _in the fight not to go on some errand, but whatever he could do was better than this. "One of our Anchorages is holding very sensitive information, information that can't fall into enemy hands."

"Information, Admiral?" Weaver wanted to yell at the flag officer out of rage. He was worried about some information when their homes were being nuked.

"Yes, I need you to head to Fimbul Anchorage." Fimbul was the largest Fleet communications outpost in the Twelve Colonies, nestled in a loose asteroid field appropriately named the Fimbul Asteroid Belt. He had been there once for an emergency stop during his early years. There was a small storage of munitions there. A perfect opportunity to get resupplied and back into the fight.

"Of course, sir. Can I ask what we're looking for once we get there?" Weaver asked still trying to hold back his irritation.

"The fleet officers there will upload the information from there. You need to protect this information until after our successful counter attack over Virgon." Nagala was confident that the force he was gathering over Virgon would be enough to stave off their attacks.

"Yes, sir. We'll have it done. _Gladiator _Actual out." Weaver put the old handset back into the command table waited for a few seconds. "Colonel, set course for Fimbul Anchorage." The Colonel nodded and began plotting a jump on the command table. Weaver's body craved for revenge. Back when he was a child on Tuaron his uncles used to tell him a Ha'La'Tha saying, "Blood for blood" They had given plenty of blood to this fight, now it was time for the Cylons to bleed.

Fimbul Anchorage, a massive station with small clusters of communications arrays evenly spaced across its hull. Possibly one of the ugliest ships the Colonial Fleet ever thought of conceiving, but despite its unappealing look it has saved a lot of innocent lives during the First Cylon War. The intel officers there were the first to crack the Cylon codes to anticipate their moves.

"Attention Fimbul Anchorage this is the Battlestar _Gladiator _requesting permission to dock." The communications officer was in the procedures of sending the docking coordinates to the Anchorage. Minutes later, the _Gladiator _shook as it attached to the station.

Commander Weaver straightened his uniform and started to head for the sliding doors of the CIC. "Colonel Spears you have the ship." Spears nodded as the Commander left the CIC.

Two marines flanked the Commander and escorted him the whole way. Their marine commander had insisted on having two of his marines protect him, quiet adamantly. "We can't afford to lose our CO at a time like this." The man had argued. Weaver didn't feel like arguing so he decided to just let them tag along.

Weaver was met as soon as he entered the Anchorage by the commander of the station, Commodore Jonathan Boward. The man looked just a few years younger than Weaver, probably somewhere in his late forties, but also moved with youthfulness.

"Commander, welcome to Fimbul. I'm afraid to tell you that your orders have changed from what Admiral Nagala originally had planned." Boward began walking into the station, motioning for Weaver to follow him.

"I'm sorry, sir, but I was told I would be receiving information here." Weaver didn't mind not being the errand boy for Nagala, but he did want an explanation for this.

"Not anymore. We're dumping all of our systems now and clearing the drives. We even have a couple of knuckle draggers pounding away at the drives with sledge hammers." Boward led Weaver through a series of corridors and into the central information center of the anchorage. The room itself was massive. Hundreds of computer screens and consoles filled the room, but only a few screens were actually on. The rest were stripped of their hard drives and absent of an officer manning them.

"Commodore, who gave the order to scrap the station? Nagala told us to come here, gather the information and jump to Virgon when the battle was won." Boward stopped and looked Weaver over for a few seconds.

"You haven't heard?" Weaver shook his head. "Nagala was killed along with the rest of the fleet at Virgon. Once we heard we decided the Cylons would be cleaning house." Boward moved over to what looked to be his personal console. "Information is useless now, Commander. All of the Colonies have been nuked, the entire Fleet destroyed. For all we know, Commander we're all that's left." Boward shut off console and turned back to Weaver.

Weaver gritted his teeth as he stepped back to allow Boward to pass. The Commodore continued to speak as they walked back towards the hangar area, "What is the status of your ship? It's a Jupiter correct?"

Weaver nodded before relaying the information. "Yes, sir. She's old but she was in the process of a shakedown run for her new systems. We're unnetworked right now due to problems with the computers, but we should be able to have it online soon to put us back up to an effective fighting force. We need munitions, though, we can't fight without bullets."

Boward slowed to a stop as did Weaver. "Your ship isn't networked?" The man asked.

"No, sir the computers were too old to handle the systems." Weaver responded.

"Good. Every report from any ship in our Fleet came through here and we got dozens of reports of entire Battlestars shutting down just before contact. We've pieced together that the Cylons were able to send a virus out that effects all of our systems, namely Doctor Baltar's Command Navigation Program."

"Is that how Nagala's force was destroyed over Virgon?"

"We believe so, Commander. I'll send some technicians aboard to make sure they can't hack your systems." Several offices had been following them the entire time and Boward motioned for them to go to the _Gladiator_. "The munitions on this station are being sent to your ship too."

"That's much appreciated, sir." Weaver gave the man an appreciative nod.

"The training Battlestar _Halo _jumped here when the attacks started. I'll be transferring my flag to there so I won't effect your command." Weaver nodded again as they began walking down the long halls. "We're going to take the fight to the Cylons, Commander. I plan on destroying as many of the bastards as I can before they kill me."

Weaver widely at the man, "That's the first good thing I've heard in days, Commodore. Just cut the Gladiator loose and we'll give them hell."

**SIX HOURS LATER BATTLESTAR **_**GLADIATOR **_**CIC**

"Commander, single contact just jumped in." The DRADIS beeped with the sound of a new contact.

Weaver looked up at the DRADIS and watched as the contact disappeared from the DRADIS. "It had to be a scout."

"Message coming through from the _Halo_, sir." Weaver turned around to look at the communications officer. "He wants us to go to Condition One and launch Vipers."

Weaver nodded and turned back around to the command table, taking the PA up. "Action station, action stations. Set Condition One throughout the ship." He paused for a few seconds as the klaxons began blaring throughout the ship. "This is what we've been waiting to do for the last thirty-six hours. Now is our chance to get back at these Cylon bastards and show them that humanity will not go quietly into the night."

Just then the DRADIS beeped again with the sound of additional contacts. Colonel Spears watched the DRADIS as the two contacts began spitting out dozens of smaller contacts. "Just as we thought Cylon Basestars."

Weaver grunted in approval and turned to Marcel, who had already anticipated the orders that were to follow. "Have the gun captains pick their targets and open fire. Have the triple A open fire when the Raiders are in range, but let the Viper have their share. They've got to be eager for blood."

The guns on both Battlestar flared to life, spitting deadly 150mm shells at their targets. The first took the combined hail of fire from both of the Battlestars almost instantly blowing off one of the arms of the ship. In response to the fire, the Basestars launched hails of missiles towards the Halo. The Halo quickly, and effectively shifted her field of flak to defend against the oncoming missiles. Missiles detonated thousands of meters before reaching the vessel and drifted harmlessly in fragments into space.

"Incoming Raiders, sir!" The DRADIS officer cried as several Raiders slipped through the anti-air defenses and the Viper lines. Four ships headed for the bow of the Battlestar on a collision course. The suicidal ships slammed into the warship, tearing away armor and deep into the decks of the ship.

"Damage report!" The DC panel light up with bright amber lights showing hull breaches across the port side bow.

"Several decks have been breached, commander. We're sealing them now." The damage control officer touched his ear and began barking orders to the DC crews to seal off the sections of the ship.

Weaver turned his attention back to the DRADIS. The Raider formations were in disarray, and were already falling back to the Basestars quickly. The first Basestar they had engaged went up in a bright white flash just seconds after Weaver looked back to the DRADIS. The lone Basestar was caught in its sister ship's explosion, damaging the ship quiet badly.

"Target the damaged areas of that ship, bring him down now!" Weaver barked to the officers in the CIC, and seconds later the massive ship shuttered as the guns found their new targets. The Halo fired her guns at the damaged sections as well, literally tearing the second ship in half.

The CIC erupted in a massive cheer as the ship exploded, and Weaver himself couldn't help but let out a cheer himself. "Both Basestars down, sir, and the Raiders are jumping away!" Marcel yelled over the commotion in the CIC. A bright smile formed across the man's face as Weaver gave him an approving nod.

The communications officer yelled to Weaver that Boward was on the line. Retrieving the handset, he heard Bowards scruffy voice over the wireless, "Weaver, we did it."

"Yes, sir. We showed those bastards we aren't going down without a fight." Weaver heard a soft chuckle on Bowards end.

"We sure as hell did. Now it's time for us to put the Cylons on the run." The Commodore said in a definite tone.

Weaver looked about the CIC at his cheering crew, and it made him smile even more. "Yes, sir. We're looking forward to it here."

**Passenger Ship **_**Aurora**_**, six hours after the opening attacks**

"Frak." Scott and the Captain worked over the FTL consoles trying to get maximum power out of the systems.

"Apollo's maneuver saved us, but the damn pulse blew out our FTL drives. We aren't going to be able to jump anytime soon." The Captain stepped back from the console and placed his hands on his head, conceding defeat.

Scott shook his head and looked up at the Captain, "No, we can jump, just not as far as they'd like us to."

"Oh Gods." Jessica pressed the headset closer to her ear, "Cylons just jumped in!"

"No more tricks, we got to jump now." Scott said.

The Captain nodded in agreement, "How far can we get?"

"Fleet is jumping!" The Co-Pilot was panicking now. "Cylons are launching nukes! We're going to die!"

Scott pushed the man away from the console and cycled through the preset coordinates. "We can get as far as Leonis, but that's cutting it close."

Scott didn't wait for the others to approve, but rather punched in the coordinates and in a flash of light, the ship disappeared.

Seconds later, the _Aurora _reappeared just above Leonis. An explosion ripped through the _Aurora _as her engines overloaded.

"Frak! We've lost the sublight engines!" The Co-pilot yelled, "We're being pulled into a low orbit!"

"Oh, Gods…" Jess was staring out the front of the cockpit. Everyone stopped and watched as several Basestars bombarded the planet's surface with nuclear weapons.

"Captain, get on the PA and tell everyone to buckle up. We're going in hard." Scott slipped into one of the seats and strapped his harness.

Scott's stomach dropped as the massive ship began falling into Leonis' upper atmosphere. Speakers cracked to life as the Captain sent the order to brace for impact. The others were shouting orders, but Scott didn't hear them. His entire focus was fixed on the altitude meter and its rapid decent.

"Four hundred meters!" Even as he said the words the numbers fell below three hundred and continued to fall. The man tightened the belt across his waist, knowing it wouldn't do much when the ship smashed into the ground. "Under one hundred meters!" The seconds felt like hours as the ship neared the mountains.

The massive ship smashed into the ground, tearing the ship apart as it went. Seconds after it hit, the ship slammed into massive rock wall, bring it to a complete stop.

A sharp pain shot through Scott's left temple as he tried to open his eyes. A warm liquid covered his left eye, and as he rolled onto his side, the pooled blood rolled off onto the floor of the bridge. He couldn't see straight, never mind concentrate on one thing. There was a throbbing pain coursing through his head.

As the dizziness faded, the bright lights that could only be of fires filled the room. The straps that were supposed to have held him in his seat were torn as soon as the ship smashed into the ground

"Jess!" He cried trying to gain his bearing in the room. Looking at the lights made his head throb more, so he shifted his eyes from place to place. "Jess!" He tried again, but no one answered yet again.

"Scott!" A body crashed into his side making him fall to the ground again. "Gods, Scott! You're alive." It was the frantic voice of Jessica Keen.

"Thank Gods you're alive, Jess, were is the Captain?" He sat up and saw the woman for the first time. A trail of blood trickled down the middle of her forehead and her duty jacket was torn open with blood stains covering parts of the torso.

"Dead, along with the co-pilot. We've got to get out of here."

He could finally see the whole cabin without the blur he had minutes before. The Captain's body lied in a crumpled ball with limbs turned in unnatural ways. The co-pilot was not far away, impaled by a cross beam. Several other corpses of the attendants and unfortunate passengers were strewn about the floor and some on the starboard walls, the ship had to be on her side.

"We need to get moving. We can't stay here." Scott turned to see a young man, reaching for his arm to help him up. He took his hand and stood to his feat, but again lost all sense of direction and almost fell, the man caught him.

"Are we all that made it?" Scott asked as they moved for the crumpled and warped doors. Scott pushed the man away and began moving on his own. The boy kicked away a slab of metal from the exit and went through first, Scott behind him, and then Jess.

"Yes, there might be others in throughout the ship, though." Jess said as she ducked through the small opening.

Scott nodded and followed the young man down the now twisted halls of the Aurora. A scream echoed from the opposite hallway making the trio turn to look. "Go check it out and continue to move aft. We'll move towards the bow of the ship. If there is survivors gather them up and clear the wreckage. This boat might come down on top of us."

The boy nodded and turned back towards the way they had just come, "I'll find as many as I can and meet up with you outside." Scott nodded watched the boy go back.

"Come on, Jess." The two moved through the broken ship, picking up several survivors on the way out of the ship. Finally, they reached the very bow of the ship, now broken open from the impact.

"Let's go everyone! Clear the wreckage!" Scott yelled and the two dozen survivors began pouring off of the ship. Scott surveyed the survivors, most were in bad shape. Some couldn't even walk on their own. They were limping, and carrying almost a dozen of the people.

"Over here!" The same boy that had been in the bridge with them jogged up to their group. "We're over there in the tree line."

Scott nodded and took the boy's shoulder, "How many did you find?"

The boy thought for a second, "Thirty maybe." He looked back towards the group of people that were gathered near the trees.

"Good job. Now lets get these people deeper in the mountains." Just then, there was a high pitched wine as ships flew over their heads.

"Rescue?" The young man asked.

Scott began to trot towards the group of survivors and turned back to the man, "No, Cylons." He looked towards the survivors, "Run! Get into the trees! Go!"

The pair of heavy Raider came around and swooped low firing their guns at the helpless survivors. The bullets tore through the people and stopped them dead in their tracks. When they passed, more than half of the people were lying lifeless just outside the trees.

They Raiders again banked around and went for another pass. A searing pain shot through Scott's leg as a round passed directly through his left quad. He fell to the ground and watched the Raiders make a third pass on the survivors. He passed out from the pain and blood loss long before Raiders left in search of new prey.

**Battlestar **_**Retribution **_**Three days after the attacks**

Ward sat back in his chair looking over the reports from the attacks, if they could even call them that anymore. It was a complete genocide that had come dangerously close to bringing their race to extinction. Sighing, he looked to his XO and friend, Allyson Shard, and dropped the final fleet reports onto his desk.

"Honestly, we got lucky."

Allyson laughed, she obviously didn't share his thoughts, "I wouldn't call our position luck, Dan."

The Admiral sighed and leaned back into his chair, lighting his pipe and began to take slow steady hits from it. It was funny how something so simple could comfort him in the midst of all his. "Well, we're lucky that Corman and Adar were wise enough not to tell anyone where we were, and give us enough fire power to launch a small guerilla campaign against the Cylons."

"What they weren't smart enough to do was give us a way to resupply ourselves. We've got plenty of food and water, but what are we going to do about tylium and ammunition? We can build Vipers, but have no way to mine for metals that we desperately need." Ward hated to admit it, but she was right. They were an effective fighting force without a means to supply themselves. She continued, "And what if our ships are damaged? What then? We have no space dock to repair them at. Ward, we can only last so long on limited resources."

He nodded in agreement, "For now, we'll just have to settle for salvaging what is left of the Colonies. We aren't giving up on our homes just yet. We're staying and fighting. All this talk about leaving and finding a more suitable planet is out of the question. We took an oath to defend our homes and that is what I intend to do."

Commander Shard let out a short laugh, "Wouldn't have it any other way, sir."

"Good," The Admiral was happy she shared his views on their current situation.

Since the bombs began falling, the more influential civilian personel on the base began beating down his door with suggestions on what to do. First it was Allen's idea to leave in search of a new home, then it was trying to negotiate with the Cylons to end the bloodshed. The latter had drawn more supporters than his or Allen's idea, but he wasn't going to give in.

Ward looked at the clock on the wall. "It's about time we addressed the fleet."

Shard nodded, "There's a lot of confused people out there. It's time we filled everyone in."

The two made their way out of his quarters and five minutes later they were in the CIC. Ward moved to the command table and picked the handset up, turning to Lieutenant Sives. "Give me fleet wide." She nodded and a few seconds later he was broadcasting to the entire fleet.

"Attention all hands, this is the Admiral speaking. Seventy-eight hours ago we received word from Picon Fleet HQ that a Cylon attack was underway. Since then, reports from the front lines and first hand recon shows that the Cylons managed to find a back door into our defense network. The damage they were able to cause us was catastrophic. As you've probably already heard, the Fleet is gone, and as of moments ago we confirmed that the Cylons have bombed our worlds. Make no mistake, this was a genocide of our people. For all we know we are the last of our race, but this will not stop us from standing against the Cylons. I plan to fight back using every available resource at my command.

You're sad right now, I understand. You're angry, good. Use these to fuel our war machine, and soon we'll have the Cylons turning tail and running from us! The time for a diplomatic solution ended with the billions dead back on our homeworlds. Now is the time for action! Now is the time for vengeance against the Cylons! Our war begins now! I ask you now, put your trust into the men and women beside you now, stand to your duties, and we will win this war. So say we all!"

Several moments passed before the response came, first from the CIC, but then it grew louder and louder. Soon the speakers erupted as the entire fleet began yelling "So say we all! So say we all!"

Ward smiled, they would fight and they would win. Their war began now.


	2. Chapter 2: First Strike

**Battlestar _Retribution_ Wardroom**

Commander Allyson Shard sat just across from Admiral Ward. The last few weeks had taken their toll on his already, and he was already showing the signs of exhaustion. Deep circles were forming under his eyes and he moved much slower than he had before.

"Are you sure these numbers are right?" Ward pinched the bridge of his nose as he dropped the file onto the wardroom table.

Allyson nodded, "They're right. Fleet fuel reserves are down to thirty percent. Even with just cutting back to the Raptors and the Nyx jumping, we're still sucking away our last reserves trying to find more tylium."

"I know, I know." Ward looked back up to his XO and sighed. "Has Commander Espino even caught the scent of a source of tylium?"

"She thinks that she has. She's enroute via Raptor now. They just returned from a long range op."

"Good. How is the rest of the crew faring?" Ward hadn't had much time to check on the crew since the attacks had started.

"As well as they possibly can be after losing their homes in a genocide. The pilots are getting a little more anxious now that we've grounded all of them." She laughed a bit, "Boozer says they've been hammering down the alcohol in the rec room."

Ward laughed a bit as well, "What else would they be doing?"

The next several minutes were occupied by the pair talking of the Fleet's status. Each ship was fully operational and combat ready aside from the fact that they had no means to go anywhere. The three civilian ships that had been fortunate enough to be over Helios during the attacks had been sucked of all of their fuel in an attempt to keep the military going just a little longer. It was safe to assume that they would be doomed if they didn't find fuel and fast.

Commander Espino entered the wardroom opposite of Admiral Ward and Command Shard. She held under her arm a small portfolio of what had to be their recent findings. She saluted the Admiral, who returned the salute and took the file.

"Sir, we think we may have found a small source of tylium." She started, handing the Admiral the portfolio. "About a week ago we noticed a small massing of ships near one of Tuaron's moons. We originally thought that we would find some left over tylium near the mines, but there was none."

Ward looked over the file. He was familiar with the facilities on the moon, as they had contributed to a small portion of tylium to the Colonial Military through some small business that he couldn't remember the name of. It seemed, however, that the facility had been hit with a nuclear weapon which should have rendered the tylium ore inert.

As if she were reading his mind, Espino began speaking again. "We detected trace amounts of radiation near the moon so we figured that the ore would be unusable to us so we moved on, not worrying about it. That was, however, before we found a small Cylon convoy leaving the moon. We tagged along and followed until it linked up with a Basestar that was sitting just over Leonis."

"A refueling ship." Ward said, looking up from the portfolio and passing it off to Allyson.

Espino nodded in agreement, "Exactly my thinking, sir."

"Then that means that the tylium is still good on the moon." Allyson set the file down in front of her.

"It must be or there wouldn't be refueling ships running regular trips from the moon." They all nodded in agreement.

"Then we should capture the moon from the Cylons and use it for our own." Olivia said after a short silence.

Ward shook his head, "No, we don't have a way to mine or refine the ore."

"Plus we'd be sitting ducks while we tried to mine out the tylium." Allyson added.

"Then what's the plan?" Espino folded her arms across her chest looking from the Admiral to his XO and back.

"I don't know, but I'm dropping you, Allyson, and Major Hawke into the War Room until you think of one." The two nodded and stood up from their seats.

"I'd like both Lieutenants Shawn and Martel to also be present for the planning of the Op, sir." Allyson said as she started for the door.

"Done, take anyone you need just find me a way to get some fuel for my boats." Ward opened the hatch and gestured for the women to exit first.

"Understood, sir." The two women seemed to respond at the exact same time, and snap crisp salutes to their Admiral.

**Battlestar _Retribution_ 68th Valkyrie Viper Squad Room**

Prince High Red, perfect. Lieutenant Atlas grinned and threw another cubit into the pile of coins and bills in the center of the metal table. "Come on, Zip. You wanted to play with the big kids now it's time to grow a pair and learn to gamble."

Zip, the freshest pilot out of the Academy aboard, scratched the side of his head while staring at the cards in his hand. The boy was no older than twenty three years, but he could handle a stick like a pro despite his young age.

"I told you guys I didn't know how to bet." He finally said shaking his head.

A chorus of laughter erupted from the pilots that were gathered around the small table. "For fraks sake, Trix, help the kid out."

The woman laughed and stood up from her seat gracefully making her way around the side of the table to where he was sitting. She moved up behind him and slipped her arms around his neck, sliding them down his chest until her head was resting on his shoulders. Zip instantly stiffened and became visibly uncomfortable. She whispered something in his ear and then picked up several cubits and put them into the pot.

"Alright ladies and gentlemen, show your hands." Lieutenant Jacob Falls tossed down his hand. Three other pilots dropped their hands, none of them high enough to beat his hand.

Grinning, James set his cards on the table, the highest of the bunch, and proceeded to gather the cubits. "Prince High Red everyone. Thanks for playing; I'll see you next time."

He laughed, but Megan cut him off. "I do think you're forgetting someone, James."

Zip sat awkwardly at the end of the table with his hand still concealed. "Um… Alright." Zip looked at his hand again, and then set them down face up.

The pilots erupted in laughter again, but this time it wasn't directed at Zip. "The kid had Full Colors and he didn't know it!" Jacob almost fell out of his seat laughing.

"Right, Full Colors is good?" Zip asked to anyone still listening.

"Good? Zip you just frakking beat all of us! That was the last of my frakking cubits!" James dropped back in his chair accepting his defeat at the hands of an amateur.

Zip perked up and began scrapping the winnings towards his chest. "Aren't you forgetting something, Zip?" Megan asked.

"Oh right, thanks Trix."

She walked up to him and kissed him on the cheek, taking several cubits as she did, "Only because I love you, Zip." His face flushed bright red as the pilots once again directed their laughter to the awkward Zip.

"Alright, Zip. You kicked my ass give me a chance to gain my money back." James said as he finished putting the money away.

"Sorry, Joker. My dad always told me to not push my luck." Zip said pulling the last of the cubits into his pockets.

Joker laughed, "Really, Zip? I think we're all pushing our luck being Viper pilots that survived a holocaust."

One of the pilots grunted loudly, "Yeah, we should have just bugged out and left this damn system." Joker shot a glance over to the side of the table to find one of the more junior pilots, Ensign Erik Belson, sitting with his arms folded across his chest glaring at the lieutenant. The man was known to be one of the louder supporters of leaving the system.

"Frak you, man. This is our frakking home! We can't just run!" Jacob Falls shot up from his seat, but Belson wasn't intimidated.

"You mean this was our home. It's frakking gone now." He said cooly, never taking his eyes off of Falls.

"I'm with Dozer on this one. We can't win a war when our entire fleet has been whipped out." Another of the pilots piped up from across the table.

"Well you two can just turn tail and run then! You frakking cowards!" Jacob's face was bright red with anger at this point.

"Alright, gentlemen. I think it is time for us to call it a night. Come on, everyone get out of here." Trix stood up trying to keep the peace between the pilots.

As the pilots grumbled to themselves and began to shuffle out of the room, Joker caught Dozer by the arm to pull him aside. "Dozer, I don't give a frak what your personal thoughts are, but what you did just there is what is going to destroy our moral."

"That's what is going to destroy our moral?" Dozer let out a mocking laugh. "There is talk of ships just leaving while we still have the fuel to. No one wants to fight a war, sir." He put strain on the word sir. The junior pilot pushed his way past the man and walked out of the room.

Megan pushed the last of the pilots out of the room so that they were the only two remaining. She lingered a bit as if trying to find words the right words. "They're just a bunch of scared junior pilots, Joker."

The man scratched his head and pushed back from the bulkhead he was leaning on. "But it's true." He said gloomily. "There is a faction forming out there to take several ships away before we lose our fuel. They've lost hope, Trix."

She nodded, knowing that it was true.

**Battlestar _Retribution_ War Room**

Six hours later they still had no plan. All five of them had thought up dozens of plans, only to be shot due to some unforeseen risk.

Lieutenant Benjamin Shawn rubbed the back of his head and sighed they had scratched yet another plan. They were thinking exactly how they should be, by the book. Their tactics and ideas were all in line with the traditional fleet thinking since its formation almost forty years ago. What were they doing wrong?

"The frakking pirates made it look easy." Commander Shard said recalling the models of Vipers and Raiders to try with another plan.

"No kidding." Katie Martel scratched off the previous plan from her small note pad.

Then it hit him. They were thinking too much like Colonial Officers. All this time they were looking for a way to effectively neutralize the enemy forces and seize the facility for themselves as would be done in a traditional war. This wasn't a traditional war though.

"I have an idea." Shawn stepped forward towards the planning table. "We need to think outside the box on this one." Each of the other officers nodded silently in agreement. "We've been going at this all wrong. Our mission isn't to secure the entire facility's tylium. We just need enough to fuel our fleet to look for a more permanent solution."

Shawn's dark skin reflected the light from the overhead bulbs that were shining brightly down onto the center of the operations room as he stepped forward to the table. "The pirates never tried to secure the facilities the took from, only the ships that were sent out."

"Of course, a soft skinned target escorted by a light escort at the most." Allyson was catching on his plan.

"But there isn't enough tylium aboard one of those ships to fuel the entire fleet." Major Hawke, who had been extremely quiet for the last half hour or so stepped forward again.

"They move in pairs, we could capture two ships at a time." Gears were now turning in Allyson's head.

"Still won't be enough, we'll have to hit two or three convoys at the same time." Shawn was in full motion now, writing down everything that came to his head on a small notepad.

"Iron out the kinks and this'll work." Olivia unfolded her arms and patted the Lieutenant on the back. "Good thinking."

Battlestar Retribution Pilot's Ready Room

Joker groaned loudly as he entered the pilot's ready room. They'd been grounded for the last six days due to the major tylium shortages across the entire fleet.

He made his way to the front of the room and found a seat next to Jacob Falls, "Not only am I grounded, but now I have to sit by your ass for the next half hour while our CAG explains to use for the twelfth time why we can't fly."

Jacob seemed largely unconcerned with the shortage and slid down in his little chair until his neck was resting on the back of the chair and he was looking straight up at the ceiling. "Don't worry, Ward'll find some more fuel and we'll be out there soon enough."

Jacob laughed, pulling a pen from his flight jacket and began to fiddle with it as they waited. "Well you're optimistic."

Razor closed his eyes as if he was going to fall asleep. "Why shouldn't I be?"

"Because without fuel we can't kill Cylons, Razor."

"We'll find a way." Jacob's eyes remained closed as he started to begin to snore mockingly.

Joker punched the man lightly the man in the middle of the stomach and he doubled over briefly. "You're impossible to talk to, you know that?"

Razor coughed for a second and returned to his previous position, but this time with his hands safely over his stomach. "And you're impossible to sleep around." He muttered before trying to fall back to sleep.

He shook his head and sat for a few more minutes in silence before Megan Fel entered the ready room. She smiled and slid into the seat next to him. "You look like you're having fun." She giggled a bit and pointed to the soundly asleep Razor.

"Loads, he passed out on me about five minutes ago." He cocked his thumb towards the sleeping pilot.

Megan was about to say something before she was cut off by the abrupt "Attention on deck!" Each of the pilots shot out of their seats and to attention.

Admiral Ward and Major Dayton Hawke entered the Ready Room and moved straight for the podium. Ward cleared his throat to speak. "Pilots, I am here with a volunteer mission only." The pilots looked around at one another trying to anticipate what was coming. "You'll accept on the terms that this mission could very well cost you your life, but will give the fleet a fighting chance later on."

None of the pilots moved at first. A silence lingered in the air that would be unnerving to even the most battle hardened soldiers. He'd been looking for some sort of action, and now he had found it. You're going to regret this. He thought as he stood up.

"Frak it. I'll do it." He said as he stood uncomfortably in the front of the room.

Hawke nodded his head to the Lieutenant, "Good now we only need forty-one more volunteers."

Both Jacob and Megan stood up just seconds after he did.

"I can't let you go get yourself killed all alone." Jacob whispered, "We'll all go die together."

James couldn't help but chuckle a little at his friend's sadistic mood. "Of course. I wouldn't have it any other way." He whispered back.

"I'll go." Little Zip stood from his chair and looked at the three other pilots.

Joker nodded to the kid as he looked back to him. Little Zip on the front lines, the thought almost made him laugh.

Before long, forty-two pilots were standing in the Ready Room, all ready to take on the Admiral's mission. Ward nodded, a small grin forming on the edge of his mouth, and stepped away from the podium. "Good, you are all to meet in the War Room in one hour." The Admiral looked around at his new batch of volunteers and smiled. "Dismissed."

**Battlestar _Retribution_ War Room**

"Alright, pilots listen up." Major Hawke dropped the first model piece of a Cylon refueling tanker on the table. "Today, we're going to solve our little tylium problem."

James grinned as he leaned back onto the bulkhead just a few meters away from the ops table. Around him, were Jacob and Megan, plus thirty-nine other Viper pilots and several Raptor pilots.

"The Cylons have been running tylium out to their outer lying ships by mining out one of our old tylium deposits and then shipping it out via freighter." Major Hawke continued. He slid another piece onto the table that represented a squadron of Raiders. "Freighters move in pairs and they're covered by at least two squadrons of Raiders. There is also a pair of Basestars sitting pretty just over the tylium base. We will hit three of these convoys at the same time by deploying Vipers from three freighters."

One of the pilots piped up from the back of the war room, "What about those Basestars? No doubt the first sign of trouble they'll jump in to protect their supply lines."

"They would, but we'll deploying the _Retribution_ and Titan to engage the Basestars while we take the freighters. Once the Raiders have been drawn away, our Raptor Wranglers will jump right on top of the freighters, latch on and deploy their marines. Once the ships are under our control we'll recall Vipers and jump to a point to be specified later." The pilots all nodded, it sounded like a plan that might work.

"Major, why don't the _Retribution_ and _Titan_ just take the facility from the Cylons?" Another pilot asked.

The Major nodded and began pulling the pieces back from the table. "We know that once we're engaged over the Cylon base it will only be a matter of time before they begin jumping in in force to retake their base. So time is of the essence on this one people."

Again the pilots nodded, but a Raptor pilot challenged the mission once again. "Do we know how much resistance we're going to hit once we're aboard the freighters?"

"Not much." Captain Forsell said before the Major could answer, she quickly explained her reasoning. "The Cylons won't be expecting piracy so there wouldn't be much need for more than just a handful of Centurions aboard their ships. It was just like us before Operation Sideswipe. We were over confident." She brushed the long blond hair from her face and looked down to the floor.

James focused on his flight lead for a few seconds. Over the last few weeks, she hadn't acted like the rest of the crew. She seemed to be taking the attacks better than others. She didn't talk of her family or friends either, now that he thought of it she hadn't ever spoke of her family. It was a passing thought, however, and it was quickly pushed aside for the more pressing matters.

"We're damn low on tylium so we're going with the bare minimum here. We can afford to put fourteen pilots on each flight, including the flight leads." A chorus of sighs and laughs in disbelief filled the room.

"Fourteen Vipers against two full squadrons of Raiders?" The pilots seemed less than enthusiastic about the mission.

The Major nodded, "Yes, and that's why it was a volunteer only. You all are the best we've got so don't fail us." The Major let the words linger for a few more seconds. "Dismissed, skids up in two hours."

The pilots, no matter how disgruntled they were about the mission, all snapped salutes to their commanding officer and accepted the mission. There was far to much at stake for them to fail here.

**Battlestar _Retribution_ Head**

Lieutenant Megan Fel splashed a bit of water on her face from the sink and looked up at her reflection in the mirror. Her short brown hair clung to her face where it had been wetted down. Fiddling with her hair for a few seconds, she finally got it to go where she wanted.

Despite the recent shower she still looked like a mess. The last hour and a half had turned her into a nervous wreck, though she tried not to show it to anyone. Taking up a towel, she dried her hair and turned around to find little Zip standing behind her.

"You ok, Zip?" The boy seemed more torn up about the mission than she did. The color in his face seemed to have been drained out of it and beads of sweat were forming on his forehead.

"Yeah, it's just I've never seen combat, Trix. Not like you and Joker did before in Sideswipe. I'm going to get myself killed."

"No you're not, Zip. You'll be just fine." She placed her hand on his shoulder and he looked up at her. "Who's your lead?"

He thought for a moment. "Captain Forsell."

She smiled to try and raise his spirits. "Good, you're with me on this one. Just stick with us, and do everything we say and you'll be golden, Zip."

"What if I do something stupid?" His mood seemed more like that of a nervous school boy than a pilot about to go into hell.

She shook her head. "You're not going to do anything stupid. Your training will kick in as soon as we get out there. I promise you, Zip, you'll be fine."

He smiled just a little and looked Trix in the eyes. "Thanks, Trix. I won't let you down. I promise." Again, he smiled and left the room without another word.

Megan stood in the head alone for the next several minutes. The whole exchange was odd to her, but she hoped that his mind would be off of the danger of the mission for a little while. She prayed that he would be alright. He reminded her too much of her younger brother. A little awkward, but never shy about things. He was always ready to please people at any time.

She smiled and exited the head, they'd be heading into hell in thirty minutes.

**Battlestar _Retribution_ Hangar Deck**

The two hours passed in a flash. Before he knew it, he was on the flight deck in full gear walking between Lieutenants Falls and Fel.

"Fifty cubits says we don't come back from this one." Jacob said gloomily.

The other two laughed, "Now who's the pessimist?"

Jacob shook his head and continued down the flight deck, "I'm just saying fourteen Vipers aren't really great odds, even for these MK VIIIs."

James just shook his head, "I'll see you on the other side, brother." The two tapped their helmets together as the broke away and headed to their separate Vipers.

Just before he got to his ladder, Megan stopped him and spun him around. "Try to not to get lost out there, Joker."

He grinned, "Wouldn't even consider it, Trix."

She flashed a grin of her own. "Cause you know I'd kick your ass if you didn't." Laughing she turned around and headed for her Viper just down the row.

James shook his head and turned back around to look at his Viper. For four years they worked to develop the Viper MK VIII in the hope that one day it would see actual combat, today was that day. It sported dual cannons on each side of the wing where the MK VII only held one, its engine systems were the new experimental kind that not only cost a fortune to make, and a half dozen test pilots' lives to make sure everything was running right.

It was a more than capable interceptor for this mission, and they'd need every leg up that they could get.

Joker climbed up his ladder and dropped down into the seat. Almost instantly, there was a pair of deck goons on top of him checking to make sure the systems were running smoothly. After the pre-flight check, the canopy was slid close with a satisfying hiss indicating the hard seal had been made.

Within minutes, he was loaded into his launch tube. Glancing over, he saw the Launch Control Officer making his final preparations to launch the Viper into space. Then, officer flashed a thumbs up which James returned with a quick salute.

The force from the catapult slammed him back against the seat, without the flight suit he was wearing, he would have most likely come close to passing out, and the force increased as he sped down the one-hundred and eighty feet of launch tube. Finally, his Viper blasted out of the tube and the force slowly subsided.

"Joker, this is the _Persephone_. We'll be your ride today. Set her down on our backside and we can get underway." The Captain of the Persephone chimed in his headset.

"Understood, _Persephone_." He carefully guided his Viper to the dorsal side of the freighter and slowly guided her down on to the outer hull. A second later, the magnetic clamps on the landing gear engaged and the Viper was effectively stuck to the Persephone.

"I just don't understand why we could just jump the Battlestars in." One of the pilots complained over the wireless.

"We can't for two reasons. One, the second the Cylons see a Battlestar jumping in they would engage their FTLs and get out of there. They'd be too overwhelmed. The second is that we don't have the fuel for that plus the Vipers and Raptors." Captain Forsell was quick to put the thoughts to rest. No doubt she wanted everyone in her wing to be focused on the mission.

"I'm just saying. A Battlestar would be nice for this one." The pilot continued to complain for the next several minutes. After that, the communications went silent, aside from the announcements from the _Retribution_ giving them the countdown to jump.

The twenty minutes seemed to drag on. Each pilot lost in his or her own thoughts about the upcoming mission. But the twenty minutes were finally up. "Alright, everyone. This is it. Good luck, and good hunting to you all." Major Hawke's voice came over the wireless, and a second later his ship disappeared with a flash of light, then the second so that they were the last to jump.

The _Persephone_ jumped, and with a flash of light reappeared near Cylon convoy. All at once, the fourteen Vipers disengaged their clamps and hurtled towards the Cylon convoy. The Raiders turned sharply when they detected Colonials. James looked directly towards their oncoming enemy, neither side prepared to flinch in their first showdown.

"Prepare to open ranks!" Captain Forsell called out.

Joker clinched his teeth as the range finder quickly ticked down, showing their adversaries coming into range. He squeezed the trigger, spraying bullets towards the machines. The first Raider jolted and then blossomed into a ball of fire as the rounds tore through its armor. Close to a dozen more Raiders exploded in the same fashion as his did, but not all of the kills went to the Colonials. A pair of Vipers in front of him detonated when the Raiders unleashed their own deadly salvo of cannon fire.

Joker pulled his Viper just behind Trix's to cover her as she blew a hole through the Cylons' main thrust. Finally, the were through the waves of Raiders, but there was not a second of respite. Soon, the Vipers and Raiders were splitting off into their own deadly dogfights.

"Trix, you've got one eleven o'clock high." A Raider swooped down and engaged her Viper. Joker lined up his sites and fired again, splitting the Raider down the middle. Senthetic blood oozed from the dead Raider splashing across his nose cone and wing staining it.

Trix keyed her wireless again, "We're not out of the woods yet. Three more coming up on our six!"

A quick glance down to his DRADIS confirmed that the Cylons were on them. "Break to port and disengage. Hopefully, they'll follow me long enough for me to bring them around and across your nose."

"Wilco, Joker. Disengaging." Trix's Viper rolled and arced sharply downward out of the area.

Several round pinged off of his wing, nothing bad, but enough to light a fire under his ass and get him moving. He tapped the thruster and pulled the trio of Raiders away. In front of him, another Viper exploded from a missile. Frak, any more of this and none of us will be going home.

He watched Trix's IFF on the DRADIS and waited for her to move into position. "Joker, I've picked up some friends of my own."

Well that complicates things. He cursed and brought his Viper to bear on her. "I'm getting a little tired of these guys. I'll trade you." He pulled another gut wrenching maneuver to keep out of the Cylon's firing solution for a few more seconds.

Joker heard Trix chuckle a little over her wireless, "Bring them on over."

The two Viper barreled straight for one another, Raiders in tote for the both of them. He counted down the seconds until they would need to break. Four, five at the most. The seconds ticked away and just a moment before their Vipers collided, they broke clearly avoiding one another.

He squeezed the trigger, blowing a single Raider away before completing his pass. The others, the three that were still following him and the two others that were following Trix didn't have the time to bank away like their adversaries were able to. The Cylons slammed into one another sending parts and blood flying about the area. One lucky Raider escaped, but damaged from the debris of his comrades, and jumped away before the pair of Vipers could engage again.

"This is Lieutenant Boyington, we've secured both transports and are preparing to jump now." He had completely forgotten about the marine strike teams that had boarded the freighters.

"Watch yourself, Lieutenant! Raiders are launching missiles at their own freighters!" Captain Forsell tried to warn them, but the pair of Cylon ships disappeared in a flash of light before the missiles could even get close to them.

"Well that's our cue. Everyone fall back to the Persephone. We're getting out of here!" Forsell's Viper whipped about and blasted full burn towards the small transport.

The others followed suit and soon the eleven remaining Vipers were enroute to the transport. "Captain, get your ships back to the _Persephone_. FTLs are hot and as soon as you're clamped we're jumping!"

"Roger that, we're coming in hot! We might put a few dents in your boat on the final approach!" Captain Forsell's Viper was the first to come in for a combat landing. Combat landings on the hull of a civilian freighter, this'll be different. Joker gritted his teeth and as he prepared for the touchdown.

A missile plumed from the _Persephone_ and streaked towards the Raiders, blowing one away. Joker laughed, "Alright, _Persephone_!"

He was surprised when he looked down to the DRADIS and saw that none of the Raiders were following them. Instead, they had launched dozens of missiles. He and Trix were the last two to come into their approach.

"Trix! On your six!" Zip detached from the _Persephone_ and blew just a mere half meter past Trix's Viper slamming his own into missile, giving his life for hers.

"Zip!" Trix's voice cracked from the pain of losing another pilot. Her Viper crashed against the Persephone and the clamps engaged sealing her to the freighter. "Zip! No!" Joker heard the first sob come from her. "Zip…"

The _Persephone_ engaged her FTLs and the ship disappeared in a flash of light.

**Two days later. Battlestar _Retribution_ Airlock 32**

James tugged at his sash that was strapped across his dress greys. In front of him were nineteen caskets with folded Colonial flags across them. Each had a bronze name plate with the names of the fallen fastened to the foot of the casket with a picture of pilot propped up next to it.

Megan knelt in front of the casket trying to hold back the sorrow for the man that had given his life for hers. Lieutenant Nathan "Zip" McGrath, the bronze plate read. The picture was one of him straight out of the Picon Fleet Academy. He wore his dress greys just as they did now, and his boyish grin light red hair lit up the entire picture.

As James stood watching his friend grieve, Jacob Falls walked up to his side. His arm was slung across his chest indicating a wound he had received during the mission. "I heard about, Zip." Was all he said as he watched Megan cry softly for the man.

"Yeah, we took a pounding." His eyes never left his friend.

Jacob looked down and scratched his forehead, "I hate to say it, but you guys got the best."

It sounded awful, but it was true. "I know." Jacob's flight under Major Hawke had lost eight pilots, including the Major himself, and the third flight had lost seven. "But we won." He finally broke his gaze away from Megan.

"At what price?" Jacob asked. He didn't like to show it, but he over thought things. And this was obviously eating him up inside. "Was it worth Zip? The Major?"

Joker nodded he couldn't disagree with his friend there. Sixteen lives for a little tylium, but then he reminded himself of something. "It wasn't just about the tylium." Jacob looked up to him. "It was about giving the rest of the fleet hope. Before we had nothing, but this one little act of defiance could spark the will to fight for the rest of the fleet."

Falls nodded and smiled. "I hadn't thought of it that way."

The two stood in silence for a few moments before Falls spoke up again. "I owe you a drink."

They laughed a little, "You do, and the first round goes to our fallen brothers and sisters."

The man nodded and cracked a small smile, "I can drink to that."

It was hard losing friends, and he knew it wouldn't get any easier. He was sure that this wouldn't be the end of the pain and sadness; they had a long road ahead of them.

* * *

><p>Disclaimer: I own nothing of Battlestar Galactica, nor am I making any money from this fic. It is solely for the purpose of entertainment. All rights go to the creators of the Battlestar Galactica universe.<p> 


	3. Chapter 3: Rescue Over Virgon

**Battlestar _Nyx_. In orbit over Virgon**

Commander Espino shifted in her command chair in the center of the small bridge of the Battlestar _Nyx_. She had always liked the different layout of the stealth ship. Instead of the CIC being buried in the center of the ship the Nyx's CIC was moved to the front of the ship so the bridge crew could visually see their targets. It made her feel like they were actually watching their foes, not hiding behind computer screens and such. The command table had also been stripped from their CIC and replaced with a commander's chair with a small data pad attached to the arm of her chair. Another addition that she loved and everyone else hated.

There was dozens of view screens around her all fixed on different angles of their target area, the remains of Virgon. She tapped a few commands on her personal datapad and a picture of Virgon snapped onto the small view screen. Her heart sank as she looked at the remains of her home world and the burial ground for her entire family.

"We're running dark, ma'am." The navigation officer called out. "We'll be over the target area in four minutes."

"Good, prepare to deploy the Novas." She said as she looked over to the young tactical officer who began frantically tapping orders into the tactical station. She remembered this was his first time in a combat situation aside from the battle of the Scorpion Shipyards where they had been forced to sit on the sidelines.

"Mines are prepped and ready for deployment, Commander." He said while trying to contain his shaky voice. She nodded to the officer and looked down at her data pad and reviewed their plan. They would deploy four Nova nuclear mines into orbit over the city of Boskirk. Next, they would then ping the surface with false wireless broadcasts, hoping the Cylons would pick up the signals and come to investigate. Then, they would blow away whatever showed up. Simple, but effective; just the way she liked it.

"Cut engines to one quarter speed and deploy the mines." She said as she stared at her data pad, monitoring their operation.

"Aye, ma'am. Answering one quarter speed." The soft hum of the engines slowed and there was four thumps as the mines left the ship.

"Mines deployed, pinging the surface now." The report came from the tactical station.

"Set a new bearing, drop us into the wreckage of those Battlestars." She tapped the coordinates onto her datapad and a few seconds later the ship lurched and adjusted its course. The _Nyx_ nestled itself into the hulls of broken Battlestars from Admiral Nagala's last stand.

"Now what, ma'am?" Her Executive Officer, Christian Rein, asked her.

"Now, Colonel, we wait."

**Battlestar _Gladiator_, In orbit over Virgon**

"Jump complete, sir. Sublights are pushed to full speed. We should be over the anomaly in twelve minutes."

Weaver nodded his head in approval and looked at his XO, who had his eyes glued to the DRADIS waiting to prove his point that this was, in fact, a Cylon trap. He knew that it very well could have been a trap. In the six weeks that they had been hiding in the Colonies they hadn't heard a single peep on the long range wireless and now it was going crazy near the city of Boskirk, Virgon.

"Colonel, set condition one throughout the ship and deploy the Vipers. If this is a trap; I want to be ready for it."

"Yes, sir." The Colonel grabbed the PA from the command table as the klaxon began blaring. "Action stations, action stations. Set condition one throughout the ship. Launch all alert Vipers." After a few brief moments, small dots began popping up on the DRADIS. Soon there was one hundred and twenty Vipers forming defensive positions around the Gladiator.

"All hands are at their stations, sir." Colonel Everest reported.

"Good, notify me when we are over the target area." Weaver called out to his navigation officer. He nodded and turned back to his console.

"You know, this is the first time I've ever been to Virgon. I wish it was on better terms." He said, trying to keep the Colonel distracted from making himself sick from worry. He had seen good men be on edge and get ruined from it. He didn't want that to happen to his XO.

"My mother lived on Virgon. I used to come here ever summer and visit her. I went to the coast of Depa. It was beautiful."

"I'm sure it was, Colonel. Whe-" Before he could say another word the DRADIS blared with four contacts.

"Four Cylon Basestars just jumped in, sir!" The tactical officer cried. Weaver shook his head and looked up to his XO.

"I guess it was too much to hope there were other survivors."

"I guess so, sir."

"Basestars launching Raiders! Time on target thirty seconds!" Again the tactical officer called out as he looked to the CO.

"Set a firing solution for the AAA and open fire the second they are in range. Colonel designate targets for the gun captains." Both men snapped to their jobs and began their work. A few seconds later the batteries began opening fire and in response the Cylon missiles began smashing into their hull.

"Frak! Jump drives have been hit! We'll need to patch them up before we can jump, sir." The Commander's heart sank. They couldn't hold off four Basestars and by the time the FTLs were online again they would be nothing but another broken hull in the graveyard over Virgon.

He looked up at the DRADIS, the Raiders had made contact with the Viper picket that had been formed. He needed a miracle. Seconds later like it was on cue, their communications officer called out to the Commander.

"Sir, message coming in."

"From the Cylons?" He asked as he moved to her station. The ship rocked from another explosion and he had to grasp onto the bulkhead to keep from falling.

"No, sir. It Colonial and it is authentic. It was over the Colonial Priority Channel One." She handed him the message and he read over it quickly.

/MESSAGE BEGINS/

BATTLESTAR GLADIATOR. MOVE TO FOLLOWING COORDINATES AND RECALL VIPERS. WE ARE RUNNING DARK… DO NOT RESPOND…

/MESSAGE ENDS/

"Orders, sir." Weaver looked over at his XO with the PA in his hands.

"We don't have much of a choice… recall the Vipers and move to these coordinates."

**Battlestar _Gladiator_ Viper Picket, In orbit over Virgon**

Lieutenant Sam "Talon" Hatcher squeezed the trigger of his Viper MK VII and watched a hail of bullets shred an oncoming Raider. Before he could call out his kill to his wingmen another Raider filled the place of the one he had just destroyed. Again he squeezed the trigger and fired a short controlled burst at the Raider, hitting it right in its red "eye".

"These frakking things are swarming us!" One of the Viper pilots called out. He instantly recognized the voice of Lieutenant David "Apache" McClain. Sam whipped his Viper around and fired his thrusters down the Viper pickett towards Apache's position and found a group of three Raiders bearing down on him. He armed one of the Vulture medium range missiles and fired it at the lead Raider. The missile streaked towards its target and slammed into the wing of the Raider, destroying it and disrupting the other two Raider's attack pattern. Apache took the brief second of hesitation from the Raiders and let a hail of bullets fly towards the Raiders, catching one of them and shredding it. The third Raider made a quick 180 degree turn and disappeared with a flash of light as its FTL engaged.

"The mighty Apache crying for help! I thought I would never see the day!" Sam laughed as he keyed his wireless.

"Shut up, Talon! I had it under control! What the hell are you doing over here anyway get to your section of the line!" He screamed back angrily.

"I'm just here to cover your ass when you finally realize that you can't fly for shit." Sam replied as he turned to engage another Raider. That'll get him going. He thought.

"Don't frakking…" Apache was cut off on the wireless.

"Cut the Gods damn chatter! Orders are coming through from Weaver. Disengage and fall back to the Gladiator." Captain Joseph Howell's voice boomed over the wireless.

"Disengage? We'll be frakking torn to bits!" Talon protested as he prepared to engage another Raider.

"That's an order, Lieutenant. Disengage and fall back to the Gladiator."

"Yes, sir." He said as he fired on another Raider, destroying it.

"Alright, Apache. Let's high tail it back to the Gladiator. I'll be right behind you."

"Got it." Apache's Viper flipped around and the afterburner engaged blasting his Viper towards the Gladiator. Talon held for a few moments letting his Viper drift backward, while firing another burst of rounds at the oncoming Raiders.

What the frak are they thinking? He pulled back on the stick spinning his Viper around to the Gladiator. He kept a close eye on the DRADIS. Obviously, the Raiders noticed that the Viper line was faltering and were coming at them like they hadn't before. Dozens of Vipers were overwhelmed by the sheer numbers and were blown away with putting up little fight.

"Damn it! We can't just leave them to be slaughtered!" One of the pilots from Howell's squadron screamed over the wireless.

"Fall back to the _Gladiator_… There isn't anything we can do for them. Combat landings have been authorized." Howell's voice sunk and was filled with pain, but still held its commanding authority. A series of grunts followed from the rest of the squadron as they reluctantly followed their orders. One by one, the Vipers slammed into the decks of the Gladiator as they made their combat landings. Talon came to a stop with his Viper looking directly out of the flight tube. This gave him a perfect view of the hundreds of Raiders pouring towards them.

"Holy shit…" One of the pilots mutter, probably looking at the Raiders too.

"What the frak are we still doing here!" Sam yelled into his wireless. The rest of the squadron broke out in random yellings, most directed towards the CIC and flight officers. Some watched hopelessly as the Raiders fired salvo after salvo of missiles towards the _Gladiator_. This was it. They were all going to die.

"Lords of Kobol hear our prayers. Protect us now in our moment of need. Shield us from this oncoming evil before us…"

Suddenly, there were four bright flashes that were so intense that Talon was forced to shield his eyes and turn away. After a few brief moments of confusion, the pilot looked back out of his canopy. Seconds before he was looking directly into his certain death, but now as if the Gods had heard that anonymous prayer, the skies were void of the Cylons and in their place were five Colonial vessels. It was the most beautiful sight he had ever seen.

**Battlestar _Retribution_ Flag Officer Quarters Four Hours Later**

Boward followed close behind Ward as they entered the Flag Quarters. Ward showed the man a seat, thanked him, and quickly took his seat. The two men spoke briefly about Boward's survival and the battle of Fimbul Anchorage.

It rather impressed Ward that the two old Battlestars were able to stand toe-to-toe with the newer Cylon Basestars and still give them hell. It just shows that despite the newer systems and weaponry, the older generation built their ships to last.

"So after your evasion," Ward started, "What happened?"

Boward perked up a little at the question, "Well, Admiral, we've been around, looking for survivors and trying to fight the Cylons."

Ward grunted a little at the man's less than informing answer. " You've been around?"

Boward just smiled at the man and continued, "Actually, we've been doing a bit of espionage." Ward sat back in his chair, interested in what the men had to say. "We found what we believe is a Cylon staging area. With just the Gladiator and Halo we didn't think we had much of a chance of effectively neutralizing the station and keep our losses to a minimum."

"Is that where the Halo was during the Battle over Virgon?"

"Yes, we were hiding in a perfect blind spot near a close moon. We've also been sending Raptors in a bit closer to check on their exact size and movements. As of fourteen hours ago, there is eleven squadrons of Raiders and a single Basestar."

Ward nodded, "That's a pretty solid force, and no doubt once word got out they would send reinforcements. What was your plan?"

"Well it was going to cost us… a lot. We planned to clear the station's defenses using both the _Halo_ and _Gladiator_ then send boarding parties to the station with a nuclear weapon."

Ward chuckled a bit. "Leave a little present for the reinforcements?"

"Exactly, and we really couldn't afford to waste one of our nukes, but with your expanded munitions stores…" Boward began to trail off.

"I think we can spare a nuke for this little operation, and our ships. No need to send in the outclassed vessels for no reason." Ward stood up and shook the man's hand. "Send all the recon data to the _Retribution_."

Boward shook his hand and nodded. "Yes, sir. I'll have it here as soon as I return to the Halo."

Before Boward left Ward called out to him, "John, Commander Hallard aboard the Battlestar _Titan_ was undergoing surgery a few days ago, but didn't come out of it. The doctors said something about complications during the surgery, I don't really know. I was planning on promoting their XO to take the position, but I want you to transfer your flag there. She is a more capable ship than the Halo."

"I'll have my personal effects transferred there as soon as possible." With that Boward saluted and left Ward's quarters.

**Battlestar _Titan_, near a suspected Cylon Staging Area**

Boward glanced about the CIC of the Battlestar _Titan_, it had been a long time since he'd been in command of a warship, but it was something that never left you. The officers quietly attended their work preparing the vessel for combat. Boward shifted his view up to the main DRADIS console.

They sat on the dark side of a moon, and a so called "blind spot" for the enemy DRADIS. The Titan, Icarus, and Athena were making final preparations for the assault. Vipers were already launched and lingering just in front of the Battlestars, waiting for the order to attack.

The mission clock in the CIC signaled when the timer hit zero. Boward nodded and looked to the XO, Commander Natalie Collins, "Commander, give the order to attack." She nodded and began shooting off orders to the crews.

The trio of Battlestars moved out from behind the moon, covered by the close to six hundred Vipers. Almost instantly, the Raiders responded to the threat. They poured from the outpost in swarms towards the Colonial force. The Battlestar's flak guns opened up, blasting a wall of shrapnel in front of the oncoming Raiders. The lead units went up in balls of flame as they entered the engagement zone.

"Sir, an additional vessel has broken away from the station, it's spooling its FTL." The vessel snapped onto a view screen near the DRADIS console. The vessel was unlike any he had seen before. The ship jumped away in a bright white flash just seconds later.

"Frak…" Boward muttered, "Ward will need to see that."

The ship rocked from the first hit against it. "Basestar is engaging, sir." Several more missiles slipped through the field of flak and slammed into the starboard side landing bay. Fires sprang up from the exposed sections and died seconds later when they hit the vacuum of space.

"All ships are to engage that Basestar, leave the Raiders for the Vipers to handle." The officer nodded and began designating targets for the gun captains. The mighty ship shuttered as her main batteries opened fire. The Athena and Icarus opened up seconds later.

The rounds tore into the center spire of the Basestar in a hellish barrage from the three ships. The armor on the Cylon ship bucked and caved in allowing the following salvos to slip through the unarmored sections. After only a few minutes of engagement, the Basestar disappeared in a giant ball of flame.

"Sir, Basestar confirmed destroyed, looks like the Raiders are going to stick around and fight to the end." The officer called out.

Boward only laughed and said, "Well oblige them, lieutenant. Shift all batteries to the Raiders." As ordered, all of the _Titan_'s batteries shifted to the loosely formed Raiders, and with all the fire concentrated on them, the Raiders were quickly obliterated.

"Keep the Vipers out, I want a tight CAP while we finish off the station." Boward ordered.

"Sir, we're intercepting a data burst from the Cylon outpost." His communications officer reported.

"What's it say, Lieutenant?"

The officer stopped for a second before continuing, "It's heavily encrypted, sir. I'll need some time to sort it all out, but I know at least a part of it is a distress call. We're going to have incoming."

Boward nodded, "Hopefully we'll be out of there by the time they get here."

"Sir, Raptors are ready to go and the nuke is primed to go." The Operations officer sounded off.

"Tell them to get that nuke on the station and get out of dodge before their buddies show up." Boward watched the DRAIDS as the four assault Raptors launched from the Titan.

"Message coming in from the boarding parties, sir." His Communications officer piped up after a few minutes of quietly monitoring the situation.

Boward nodded and took the handset from the side of the command table, "Titan Actual, go ahead."

"Actual, this is Lieutenant Farraut, we've cleared the station of hostiles, it looks like they weren't expecting a boarding party. There was only about a dozen Centurions aboard, nothing else."

"Alright then, plant the nuke and get the hell out of there."

"Commodore, we can't do that yet." Boward was taken back by the open denial of his orders.

"And why can't you do that, Lieutenant?"

"Because this isn't just a staging area, sir. Now that we're here we can see that this is a Communications Array. We're just scratching the surface here but it looks like the Cylons have been communicating with their fleets outside of the Colonies quiet a bit."

Boward rubbed his chin for a few seconds before answering, "Lieutenant, Cylon reinforcements are inbound as we speak. How long do you need?"

"Ideally, two hours…" Farraut drifted off

"You don't have that much time, Lieutenant"

"Then give me an hour and I'll pull as much as I can."

The chance for a goldmine of intel forced Boward to stick around, "Fine, but if the Cylons show up in force I'm pulling you out regardless."

"Yes, sir we're already starting to extract the intel." The wireless cut without another word.

Close to an hour later, the DRADIS sounded six times. "Massive Cylon fleet just jumped in! I'm counting six Cylon Basestars!"

Without thinking, Boward snatched the handset from its holster, "Lieutenant Farraut we need to go now! Six Cylon Basestars just jumped in."

"Sir, the intel here could prove to be invaluable. We need just a little more time to extract it." Lieutenant Farraut seemed more than insistent on the matter.

"How much more time?"

Farraut was silent for a few seconds before answering, "Five minutes and we'll have the drives completely pulled."

Boward cursed under his breath. "Five minutes, Lieutenant and we're leaving without you." He didn't wait for a response from Farraut, "Launch all alert Vipers and turn to engage. I want the Athena and Icarus to begin an enemy suppression barrage. I want all batteries to begin salvo fire and knock down anything that comes at us. We're going to need to hold them off for just a few minutes."

The officers sounded off and snapped to their duties. Within seconds, the Titan shuttered from their massive guns coming to life. Hundreds of missiles streaked towards the three Battlestars, but the anti aircraft guns picked the missiles apart.

"Frak! Two nukes just slipped through!" The Operations officer cried.

Several seconds later the pair of nuclear weapons slammed into the Icarus sending her into an uncontrolled spin.

Boward gritted his teeth and snatched the wireless again, "Farraut you're out of time get your asses back to the Titan."

"We're finished here now, sir. We'll just jump the Raptors back to the RV point."

"Roger that, Lieutenant. We'll cover you until you get out of there." Boward gave the order to cover the Raptors out and the guns swiveled to destroy any incoming.

"Lieutenant, can the Icarus jump?" The communications officer tapped his ear for a second and relayed the question to the Icarus.

"Yes, sir. They don't have sublight back online yet." The Titan shook from missiles striking their port side and Boward gripped the side of the command table.

"Raptors are clear, sir." A voice called out from the back of the CIC.

Boward nodded, they were out of time "Have the Athena cover the Icarus while she jumps and then have them get out of there too." Boward flashed his eyes up to the DRADIS to see the rapidly deteriorating situation. "Pull us back out of the combat zone."

"Athena and Icarus just jumped!" Again, the Titan rocked from missiles striking her. Damage control alarms began blaring as the DC officers began sealing vented sections off.

Boward watched through the static on the DRADIS as the Cylon Basestars formed around their retaken station. Perfect. Boward looked to his XO, who pulled her nuclear key out and slid it into the terminal. The two entered their command codes and turned the keys in synchrony.

Seconds later, the nuclear weapon that the boarding parties had brought along detonated, destroying the station and engulfing almost all of the Raiders in the blast and damaging several of the Basestars with flying debris from the station and their Raiders.

Boward grinned, "Lieutenant, turn about and give them a taste of our forward guns and then jump us out of here."

"Aye, sir." The Titan lurched and after several seconds of concentrated fire from the bow guns, the lead Basestar exploded. A cheer went up from the kill.

Despite their small victory, the Cylons were recovering from the blast and firing once again. Boward looked to his navigation officer and nodded seconds later, the Titan disappeared in a flash.

**Four hours later**

"Can I get you a drink, John?" Ward poured himself a glass of Ambrosia and offered one to Boward who thanked him and took it.

"So what's the count?" Ward sighed, knowing the cost of this mission would be high.

"Well, the Icarus basically broke her back jumping back to Helios, not to mention she blew out her sublights and FTL trying to make a stable orbit along with just about every other piece of electical equipment aboard. Normally she'd be scrapped due to how bad of condition she's in." Boward was only getting started with his list.

"The Athena took minimum damage, but the bastards got a lucky shot off on one of her flight pods and hit a tylium hold blowing a hole the size of a house in it. DC crews contained it, but she'll need to stay behind for a while as well until we can patch it up." Boward took a second to drink before continuing.

"The Titan has a handful of vented compartments and a few cracked battle plates, but for the most part we're alright."

Ward shook his head, "We took a beating."

"Yes, sir, but we have two kills and there's this." Ward raised one eyebrow as Boward pulled a data disc from his pocket.

"This is just some of the intel we pulled from station." The Commodore handed the disc to his superior. "The station was a communications array. It seems that several of their Basestars and staging areas have been hit recently. Most of it is heavily encrypted and damaged from the fighting in the control room, but we found a single mission log that mentioned another staging area that was hit."

Ward finished his drink and set the glass down on the arm of the chair he was sitting in, "And?"

"The station and her escorts were destroyed. From what we've pieced together from the intel so far, we think it's the Pegasus."

The Admiral's eyes immediately widened, "Pegasus?"

"Yes, sir there wasn't much contact with the staging area after the Battlestar jumped in so this is all we could get."

Ward shook his head, "It would be Cain that made it out of this mess."

"Do you know, Admiral Cain?" Boward finished his drink as well.

Ward stood up and took both glasses. As he began pouring the first he said, "I knew her a long time ago. She'll stop at nothing to get the job done."

Boward took the second glass and thanked the Admiral again, "Sounds like you two have a past."

"Had a past, and I'm not eager to relive it." Ward downed an entire glass of Ambrosia and filled it again.

"Of course." Boward took the quiet obvious hint to let it drop and dropped it.

The two flag officers spent the next hour or so speaking of the events of that night, and their future plans. Eventually, Boward retired from his office and back to the _Titan_.

Helena Cain was still on his mind, however. Twenty-six years ago, they were both newly promoted and sent to finish off the Bounder Rebellion, those that wanted to expand out of the Twelve Worlds and search for new planets to settle, under the command of Admiral Saker, a hero of the Cylon war. The _Primus_, Saker's flag, was caught in a trap that the rebels had set and crippled, leaving Ward and Cain to deal with the situation.

In his slightly drunken state, Ward fell down onto his cot. The memories of that night had been forgotten long ago, and for good reason, but now they slowly drifting back to him.

**Twenty-six years ago, End of the Bounder Rebellion**

"You can turn back to your colonies and live, along with your precious flagship, _Primus_, as long as you allow us to leave. If you don't, we'll obliterate the _Primus_ before you have a chance to react." Commander Ward looked to his communications officer and signaled to kill the communications. Before it went dead, however, the rebel said, "The choice is yours Colonials."

Ward shook his head and picked the handset up, "Get me a secure channel to the _Halcyon_."

Seconds later the voice of newly promoted Commander Cain came on, "This is _Halcyon_ Actual."

"Cain we need to stand down, they're going to destroy the _Primus_ if we don't."

"We can't stand down, Ward. We've got them all here now."

"Cain, there is three thousand Colonials aboard the _Primus_, we can't just willingly throw their lives away."

"Acceptable losses for ending a rebellion right here. We need to attack now before the chance slips from us."

"Cain, there isn't such a thing as acceptable losses, besides we've got a positive ID on the rebels here. We can hunt them down later when we have the upper hand!"

"So more ships can be damaged while they rally more to their cause? No we can't do that Ward."

"Cain listen to me. They're beaten already, engaging them here will only seal the fates of everyone aboard the _Primus_ along with the rebels!"

"I'm done talking, Ward. If you don't have the stomach to attack then I will."

"Cain! Don't do this!" The wireless channel went dead, "Cain! Frak!'

"Sir! The _Halcyon_ is engaging!" The tactical officer called off as the _Halcyon_ started toward the rebel fleet.

"That frakking fool!" Commander Ward's eye's shot to the DRADIS to see the Halcyon pushing forward into the group of rebels. "Turn us about and launch all alert Vipers. Colonel, gun captains are to target the lead ships and keep them off of the _Primus_."

The _Orion's_ gun's began blasting away at the rebel ships, tearing their thin armor away with relative ease. Ward pushed the Orion's engines to the brink of overload trying to reach the _Primus_.

The _Halcyon_ pushed deep into the rebel formation taking everything that they could give and throwing it back at the enemy. The rebel flag ship pushed away and fired an entire salvo of missiles at the _Primus_.

Time seemed to slow as dozens of missiles slammed into the _Primus_ and she went up into a massive ball of flames. "Sir, the Primus just went up!"

Ward's heart sank as the _Primus_' icon flickered away from the DRADIS, not a single Raptor leaving the ship.

"Sir, _Halcyon_ is reporting heavy damage to her port side. She's pulling back."

"Alright move in and cover her damaged side while we finish off the rest of the rebels."

The _Halcyon_ limped behind Orion and continued to fire on rebel ships. After several minutes of intense fighting, the last of the rebel vessels blew up under the combined fire of the two Battlestars.

Ward picked the handset up from the command table, "How many, Cain?"

There was a slight pause before Cain responded. He could consoles sparking in the back ground and screams of injured crewmen. "Counts are still coming in, but estimates are around six hundred crewmen."

Ward silently cursed to himself. The anger was slowly boiling up from inside him, "Was it worth it, Helena?"

"The mission is complete, isn't it?" Cain's cool voice chilled Ward to the bone, "We've won, Ward."

**Battlestar _Retribution_, Flag Officer's Quarters**

Doctor Allen lingered in front of the Admiral's desk shifting uneasily from foot to foot while he waited for the Admiral to speak. "Doctor, as you've probably heard around the base, we've captured a large cache of information from the Cylons. Too much for just the _Nyx_'s officers to sift through in a manageable amount of time."

Allen didn't speak, but only nodded waiting for the Admiral to continue. "I'm pulling several members of your team off of NOVA project to help with the effort."

Allen's eyes widened and he began to stammer. "But, but, Admiral!" He almost shouted at the man. "The NOVA project is almost complete! Taking even just one of my team will delay our efforts for weeks even months!"

Ward expected as much from the doctor and simply crossed his hands across his chest. "It isn't permanent move, they will return to you once the information has been deciphered."

"Admiral, you aren't seeing the use that the NOVA project can have against the Cylons! It could turn the tide of the entire war!" Allen cried.

Ward shook his head. "How long?"

"How long?" Allen went silent for a few seconds. "Well it is hard to say at this time, but we can definitely say that it will be longer with the absence of my scientists."

"So you don't actually know how long? It could be several months, if not longer than a year?" Ward was determined to know how long the project would take.

"Well as I said it is hard to know-"

The Admiral slapped his hand down on the desk cutting the doctor off. "Damn it, Allen, just tell me how close you are."

Allen scratched the back of his neck, looking quiet embarrassed. "We have no idea how long it will take us, and that is the truth."

Ward was satisfied with Allen's truth, and he tried to suppress a smile at the doctor's embarrassment. "Then my decision stands. Your people have two days to report to the _Nyx_. The sooner they do, the sooner they can begin work and get back. You're dismissed, Allen." Allen nodded and left the room without another word.

**Battlestar _Retribution_, Combat Information Center**

The Admiral stood holding the handset in front of the command table. On the other end, Commander Espino spoke coolly about their findings in the Cylon cache. Ward could hardly contain his excitement as he spoke to the Commander.

"It's heavily encrypted as our officers reported earlier, and several parts were in fact damaged, but we've confirmed that it is the Battlestar _Pegasus_ that has escaped destruction. It only mentions the Battlestar once by name, but they repeatedly speak of another Battlestar with a large fleet following it that has been attacking their bases." Espino was reporting from her Battlestar where they had been working around the clock with Allen's team.

"Thank the Gods that someone else has made it out. Thank you for the report, Olivia." The wireless went dead and Ward pushed the handset back into its holster on the command table.

"Are we going to search for her?" Allyson asked after a few seconds of silence.

He turned to his XO and nodded to her. "We'll begin looking for her soon, and we'll find her."


	4. Chapter 4: The Resistence

**Battlestar _Retribution_, Flag Officer's Quarters**

Lieutenant Atlas shifted uneasily as he stood outside the Admiral's door. Captain Forsell was called in first, which everyone in the fleet knew the reason, her promotion to the Commander of their air group. She was the only logical choice out of the remaining squadron leaders. The rest were good officers, but they lacked the tactical insight that the Captain had.

James started off standing at attention, and the specialist that was serving as the Admiral's assistant would pass from time to time with an armful of files, only to give a little smirk each time he passed by as if he knew that it wouldn't last. Finally, after standing for ten minutes without any indication that he would be beckoned in, he allowed himself to relax a little. His mind began to wander now as the time slipped by. The last few weeks had been going by so fast that be didn't really have time to think about what had occurred. Maybe that was the reason the Admiral had kept them on constant alertness and tripled the CAP. If they had any time to relax, their minds would all fixate on the recent events.

They'd all gone through a brief time of grieving and mourning directly after the attacks, but it had been straight to work for them since then. Now, without the constant movement and tasks of the Fleet, the pain returned. He had a hard time wrapping his kind around the fact that the human population had been reduced to a fraction of what it had been a mere month ago. There was billions on Caprica alone, and now there was less than twenty thousand. He hadn't had the mourning phase for his parents , for they had died long ago when he was only eleven years old, but his thoughts now went to his sisters.

He was the youngest of three, his oldest sister being three years older and the other being his twin and only his senior of twenty seven seconds. Since his parents had died, he'd become very close to his sisters, and before he had been deployed his first time during Sideswipe, he'd been able to the both of them on Aerilion where they'd grown up. When he finally had to say goodbye to them, there were tears from all three of them, but he'd didn't tell them how much he loved them or would miss them. It had been the last time he saw them all together. His twin, Kailey, he had seen on his last leave before leaving for Helios upon her graduation from Basic Training and her Advanced Training. She'd decided to join up much later in her life as opposed to him. James smiled a bit as he remembered back to that day when she saluted him in her full dress grey uniform. He knew the salute was out of pure mockery, but he loved seeing his sister in uniform.

Her MOS had placed her as a Munitions Specialist and Load Operator, or more commonly known as a loader for a Battlestar's main gun turrets. He'd been so damn proud of her when she told him of her assignment to the Battlestar _Nightflight_, and absolutely crushed when he saw the _Nightflight_ on the list of casualties after Nagala's failed assault on Virgon. It wasn't until now, however, that he had actually been able to think about his sisters. His stomach churned at the thought of his sisters being dead, but he couldn't keep the thought from his mind. The memories of them wracked his mind

After standing in agonizing misery for nearly half an hour, the captain finally emerged from the Admiral's office. James stood up from the seat near the door to meet his superior. She nodded to him and walked past without a word, but he caught a glimpse of the new Major pins on her collar. Then it was true, now she'd be breaking the rest of the air wing's ass and not just his.

The lieutenant took a second to straighten his uniform and stepped through the open hatch to the Admiral's personal quarters. He sat behind his overly large wooden desk, relaxing in his chair with a small smile on his face. It was odd to see the Admiral so calm, the last time he saw him face to face, he was ordering him to go into hell with little chance of survival.

"Lieutenant Atlas, good to see you."

"The pleasure is all mine, Admiral." James snapped a crisp salute and stood at attention in front of his desk. Ward sat forward and sifted through a pile of paper until he finally fished one out.

"I've just promoted Major Forsell to the Commander of the Air Group leaving the 68th without a squadron CO. You all are my strong right arm and honestly I don't know of a better fit to lead them , Lieutenant. You're my ace, and now you've got yourself a squadron to go along with that gauntlet you've got in the rec room. Of course only if you accept."

James was a little shocked by the bluntness of the good news, but found a way to force the next few words out. "Thank you, sir. It would be an honor."

The Admiral laughed and again fished into his desk coming up with a small box. "Then you'll need these, Captain." He slid the box across the table to James.

"Yes, sir." James cracked the box open to see the new his new Captains pins. Quickly, he took the old Lieutenant pins off and fastened the larger pins to his collar. "Thank you, sir."

"Now, Captain, I need a new CAP schedule for your squadron and a full inspection of all of your squad equipment in my office by 1300 hours. Understood?" The Captain nodded, not as excited with his new work load. "The price of power is more work."

"Yes, sir." James snapped a crisp salute and left the Admiral's office.

**Battlestar _Emerald_, Combat Information Center**

Commander Hayden Besant checked over the final jump coordinates for his small little patrol flotilla. He was to join Commander William Eviston for the next month and a half to patrol a large sector the Epsilon Centarui System, the system Helios was home to. Besant was not looking forward to his rendezvous with Commander Eviston, not because of the months they would spend away from Helios, but having to spend that time with a notoriously bad mannered man such as Evistion.

His first impression of the man had been less than friendly. Evistion was a good officer, but a bit of a tyrant to his officers and crew. They all respected him, but feared him. The Commander tended to try to spread his realm of fear and intimidation to his fellow Commanders, usually with no benefit.

Hayden decided to stop thinking of the man since he would no doubt have to deal with for the next month or so. Better savor the time you have to yourself. He thought.

"Commander, the_ Ares, Kvasir_, and _Vulture_ are all reporting that they are good to jump, sir." The operations officer called out.

"Then lets go meet Commander Evistion." He dreaded the thought.

The operations officer nodded and gave the signal for all ships to jump. The four ships disappeared in a flash of light, reappearing near the _Loki_ and her small battlegroup of two Gunstars.

Hayden waited for a moment staring at the three icons on the DRADIS, waiting for the fourth to pop up. Colonel Annis took note of the Commander staring at the DRADIS. "Something wrong, sir?" He asked.

"There is the icons for the _Loki_, _Reliant_, and _Hornet_, but no _Requiem_." The Colonel glanced back to the DRADIS and took a double take.

"Open a channel to the _Loki_, maybe they can clear things up for us." The communications officer nodded and seconds later he had a connection to the Loki.

"This is _Emerald_ Actual to the Battlestar _Loki_."

Besant was expecting the grizzled voice of the tyrant that he loathed, but instead a younger, slightly frightened voice came across. "Actual, this is acting Commander Colonel Staten, sir."

"Acting Commander? Where is Evistion?" Hayden asked. It would be just like Evisiton to leave the CIC during a planned rendezvous.

"Dead, sir." The acting Commander said.

"Dead?" He nearly dropped the handset after hearing the news. The man might have been a tyrant, but he was a damn fine officer. One that couldn't easily be replaced.

"Yes, sir. Our long range communications and FTL are offline too. We're making repairs now, sir." The man began to explain.

"What happened, Colonel?"

The Colonel sighed before starting his story. "An ambush. The Cylons took us by complete surprise and destroyed the Requiem in the opening salvo. We took two of the bastards with us but paid the price."

"How did they find you?"

"We don't know, sir. They might have just been waiting for us."

"Frak," Hayden muttered under his breath."

He turned to his communications officer. "Get this back to Ward now!"

As soon as the communications officer sent the message, the DRADIS beeped when another contact jumped in.

"DRADIS contact!" An officer yelled. "They're firing missiles!"

Hayden cursed under his breath and began firing off orders to his crew. "Set condition one throughout the ship and move us to cover the Loki. I want the triple A batteries to find their targets and prepare to launch countermeasures." He wasn't about to lose the Loki to a second Cylon attack.

"Sir, the missiles are way off target. I don't think it's aiming at us." Hayden's eyes shot to the DRADIS to see that the missiles were in fact heading into an empty section of space, and then detonated in a seemingly random position.

"What the frak…" He muttered.

"We're receiving a burst transmission from the unknown contact." The communications officer reported. He took the paper and read it aloud. "Sir, it says: hold condition one… Cylon fleet inbound…"

The officer looked back at the commander utterly confused. Hayden rubbed his chin as he thought. "Lieutenant, send a hostile challenge and ID. Keep the ship at condition one and prepare for a Cylon attack. Relay the message back to the rest of the fleet to hold their fire." The crew nodded as they began their work. He quickly added, "Launch the alert Vipers and have them form a defensive position around the fleet.

Only a few minutes later the DRADIS beeped again, this time with a clear icon showing three Cylon Basestars. The _Emerald's_ crew didn't need orders to fire on the Basestars, and in seconds the guns began blasting away at the Cylon ships.

The Cylons seemed surprised at the Colonial's readiness to fight. They were slow to launch Raiders, but quick to fire their missiles. It seemed as if they weren't prepared for an extended fight.

The Vipers quickly rushed the Basestars, and were on top of the Cylons before the main force of Raiders could be launched. Hayden watched the massacre of the Raiders as they desperately tried to launch from their ships. With each Raider icon that flicked off the DRADIS, his smile grew.

With counter-measures already in place, the missiles had no chance of slipping through the combined fire of the Gunstars. Within several minutes, the Cylons planned ambush had turned completely turned against them. With the Vipers now free to hammer away at the Basestars point blank, and the Battlestars concentrating their fire, the first Basestar exploded. Over the next several minutes, the other Basestars took crippling damage to their center spires and outer arms forcing one to jump away. The other stayed, likely due to a destroyed or damaged FTL, and quickly caved under the fleet's combined fire.

A cheer shot up through the CIC when the Cylons were defeated. Hayden turned to his communications officer and the CIC quieted down a bit. "Lieutenant, see if you can't get our new friends on the wireless."

The man nodded and sent a message out to the unknown contact. A few moments of silence passed before the speakers cracked to life. "This is Cadet Major David Talvert, acting commander of the Patrol Frigate _Horzion_."

Hayden picked up the wireless. "Thank you for the help, Horizon. I don't know if we would have survived that if the Cylons would have had the jump on us."

"We're not out of the woods yet, sir. Are you in command of this fleet? I've got intel that could save a lot of Colonial lives."

**Patrol Frigate _Horizon_, Three Hours Later.**

Admiral Ward shifted silently in the back of his Raptor as they sped towards the small Patrol Frigate. He half expected the _Horizon_ to be nothing more than a Cylon trick when he first heard of it. A Patrol Frigate was the last class of warship he figured would have survived. The ship was small, had little more than a dozen missile launchers and some point defense weapons. It could house a pair of Vipers if needed, but usually it had no air wing aside from a single Raptor.

Its stores were shallow as well. These Frigates weren't needed to go into deep space, but rather local Colonial Defense, more specifically Scorpian Defense since they were the only ones who still fielded the units. He hadn't ever served aboard one, but knew they couldn't stay away from a port for more than six to seven months at a time.

The matter that was most disturbing, however, had to be the fact that a Cadet had claimed to be their commanding officer. Cadets had been known to serve aboard merchant ships during their time at the various academies across the twelve worlds, and sometimes ships served as training platforms for new cadets, but they were usually complemented by active duty crewmen.

The Raptor set down softly onto the deck of the frigate and the Admiral stepped out into the hangar deck. A few crewmen stopped and saluted him, but aside from that there were no formalities. A young woman stopped in front of the Admiral and saluted him.

"Cadet Lieutenant Jessica Knowles, sir. I'm to escort you to the CIC." She said and waved her hand for him to follow.

Ward nodded and followed the woman through the ship and into the CIC. The CIC was filled with damaged computer screens and burn marks indicating recent combat. A young man turned to face the Admiral.

"Talvert?" The Admiral asked as he approached the man.

The man nodded, "Yes, sir. I would have met you on the deck, but there is a lot of work to be done."

The Admiral looked about the CIC and found that all of the crewmen aboard seemed young, and no doubt were Cadets as well. "Well, Talvert, I'm going to have to tear you away from your work to ask some questions. You've got the entire battlegroup surrounding you, you've got some time."

Talvert seemed reluctant at first, but finally nodded in agreement. "Yes, sir. I'll take you to my quarters."

He led the Admiral through a series of corridors that were equally destroyed as the CIC was. Wires and jury rigged panels were strewn about the ship, obviously just barely keeping the ship up and running.

Finally, they entered the quarters of the young cadet. The cramped quarters didn't have much in it, but Talvert managed to find two seats for them. It was then that Ward noticed that the man's countenance. His face seemed dark and older than he actually was. Obviously the burden of command had taken a heavy toll on the man.

"So, Talvert." Ward didn't know how he should address the man. His official rank would have still been in the academy as a Cadet Major, one of the highest ranks that the cadets could achieve, but he had acted as their commanding officer for Gods know how long. "How did you end up here?"

"Well, sir. We were ordered to deliver the _Horizon_ to the Toakri Deep Space Facility where she would be used for short range patrol duty. It was supposed to be as simple as it gets. Burn our sub-lights for eight days and get the feel for what a real Colonial Vessel was like. Our commanding officer was Colonel Buyer, who was also supposed to take command of the station once he reached it, and aside from a dozen crewmen the rest of us were Cadets."

"When the attack came we were still about four days from Toakri. The Colonel ordered us to jump to Toakri, and when we did we found that several squadrons of Raiders were already hitting the station. Long story short, sir, we got our asses kicked. Toakri was destroyed with all hands and we lost almost a quarter of the crew, including Colonel Buyer."

Ward nodded, realizing now just how long Talvert had been in command of the vessel. "It sounds like you took quiet a beating."

"Yes, sir. We didn't get back into the fight for quite some time, but this isn't really relevant right now. I have some intel that you need to know. The Cylons are hunting you, sir. And the more you send out your ships, the more they will ambush you."

"I've gathered my ranking officers on the Retribution. I want you to head come back with me and give me a full debrief."

"Yes, sir." The two officers rose to leave.

"One more thing." Ward fished into his pocket and brought out a pair of Major insignias. "As the highest ranking officer left in the Colonial Fleet, I am promoting you as of right now to Major and the _Horizon_ will be yours. When you return to you ship, I would like a full crew manifest and all of your records."

Normally, a Cadet would be ecstatic to be promoted even to Ensign, never mind Major, but Talvert just nodded and accepted his pins. The man had assumed the mantle so long ago it must not have felt like much to gain a promotion. "Thank you, sir."

**Battlestar _Retribution_, Ward Room. An hour later.**

"So your saying that the Cylons have set up system fleets with dozens of these damn sensor beacons spread all over?"

"Yes, sir. We stumbled on one about a month ago and barely made it out in one piece. The beacons apparently send out a burst transmission to one of these mustered fleets that are ready to go with a moments notice and ambush anyone that is there."

"Well, it seems the _Thor_ stumbled on one of these when they were attacked." Commander Besant stated.

"As did the _Pacifica_ and _Loki_. But fortunately, they weren't in system. So the Cylons don't know exactly what system we're in. Plus, the _Horizon_ and her crew have been throwing them on a wild goose chase by randomly hitting the beacons." It was their one spot of good luck. Ward thought to himself.

"So we know that they don't know where we are exactly." Commander Harvard, the commanding officer of the recently attacked _Pacifica_, said.

Ward nodded thoughtfully for a moment. "Solutions?"

The officers sat quietly for several moments before Commander Harvard spoke up. "Well we need to take the threat of those system fleets away for starters."

Allyson sat forward to question the newly promoted Major. "Talvert, did you find any weaknesses in their defenses?"

The Major cracked a small grin before beginning. "Well we weren't planning on hitting the Cylons until we'd capture our prize."

"Prize?" Ward asked.

"Yes, sir. I thought you would like to hear this." Talvert grinned a bit more. "The Aquarion shipyards haven't been destroyed."

"What? I would have figured they would have been hit in the opening attacks." Harvard sat forward obviously interested in the shipyards survival.

"They weren't; we followed a Basestar that was torn up a bit, probably an old friend of yours, into the Aquarion system, watched for a bit and found that they had refitted the shipyards for their own use."

"Damn smart. Why build a whole new station when you can just take one?" Harvard laughed. "We should take it back." He muttered.

"So you planned to capture the shipyards?" Ward asked.

"No, sir. We wouldn't have been able to handle a station of that size, however, there was several Battlestars in dry dock that were all scheduled for decommissioning. When the Cylons took over, they just pushed the Battlestars out of the docks."

"You planned to take one of them?"

Talvert nodded, "Yes, we hoped that the _Galactica_ would have been there, because she was scheduled to stop off there, but she wasn't."

Harvard chuckled a bit at hearing this. "You hoped she would be there?"

Talvert nodded thoughtfully, "Despite the lack of munitions she still had her electronics and weapon systems aboard her, unlike most of the other ships there."

"Well we can't go off looking for some broken ships right now. We need to figure out how to get the Cylons out of our back yard." Harvard stated, despite his interest in the shipyards, he seemed willing to shelve them for the time being.

"The two goals might not be unrelated." Ward said, folding his hands across the table.

"How so, sir?" Talvert asked.

Ward glanced around the table to each of his officers. "If Helios were to be hit, what would our ships do?"

"Scatter, and find a place to regroup." Allyson was the first to speak.

"Exactly. If we take out the Cylon's forward base, then they'll be forced to pull back and abandon their system sweeps." The Admiral continued

"At the very least that would buy us a little time." Besant agreed.

"Get a message to Commander Espino and tell her to recon the shipyards at once. I want to know the size of their force there." Ward said to the marine standing near the doors.

"You know this is a prime opportunity to expand our assests." Harvard was once again interested in the shipyards. "The Aquarion shipyards were made during the Cylon War to be a mobile ship yards to be able to stay one step ahead of the Cylons. We could easily take the shipyards for our own."

"Yes, but there was a reason that the shipyards are stuck over Aquarion. During the Battle of Aquarion her FTLs were hit and the Admiralty never replaced them." Allyson argued.

"Then we'd have to bring one along and retro fit it to the shipyard." Hayden was on Harvard's side on this one.

"We can't really spare one of our own right now." She continued.

"One of the gutted Battlestars might have one still." Talvert added.

"They actually all should." Ward decided to enter the argument.

"He's right. The FTLs are generally the last to go when gutting a Battlestar in case they need to move a ship for some reason."

"We'd have to move fast. Engage the ships around the station, and simutaniously take shipyards."

"We'll need General McGrath's marines." Shard said.

"And his assault ships. Allyson, head back ground side and inform the General to muster his men and prep the ships."

She nodded and stood up from the table and headed out of the conference room, not trying to hide her distaste for the change in the mission.

"Those assault ships will be sitting ducks on the main approach, Admiral." Harvard said stroking the small hairs on his chin.

Ward nodded in agreement. "I know, we'll need to draw the Basestars away before we attack the shipyards."

"How so?"

"We'll need bait."

"The _Pacifica_ is up to the challenge and eager for some payback." Harvard didn't lack confidence despite the recent beating his ship had taken.

Ward lingered on the thought for a few seconds before shaking his head. "No, I can't risk the _Pacifica_ right now. She's still undergoing repairs. The _Retribution_ will go."

"You want to use the flag ship as bait?" Besant said after a small gasp.

The Admiral didn't even bother to look at the Commander but rather stood up indicating the meeting was finished. "She's the biggest prize the Cylons could get, and she's the most durable."

"Well I guess there's no arguing that fact. We'll have the rest of the task force ready." The rest of the officers saluted, and left the room.

**Planet Leonis, Resistance Base Camp**

Buried under one hundred feet of mountain was the Serta Arms Company weapons testing facility. Serta used to be one of the biggest arms dealers, supplying weapons to almost every colony, and in some cases their enemies such as the Ha' La' Tha, before and during the Cylon War. However, they fell on hard times when the Twelve World united and the Articles of Colonization brought about forty years of peace. During the height of their dominance they built one of the largest arms facilities on Leonis. It was abandoned almost four years after the Cylon War due to the company's cut backs.

Now, the facility had a new purpose. Almost eight thousand survivors of the Cylon Holocaust were crammed into the massive complex.

"Hey, Ell Tee, we've got it." Scott turned around to find Carson Wickham, or to them just simply Wick, running up the stairs followed closely by two men armed with rifles and shotguns.

"Wonderful, Wick." Scott took the camera that the man had brought him and handed it to Jessica, who had become the resistance intelligence officer after the crash of the Aurora. She popped the film out of it and quickly began searching through the photos.

Wick dropped his CX4 Storm onto the metal table before him. "Your runners didn't make it. We found them both KIA near the rail ways."

Scott sighed at the loss of two more of the resistance fighters. He had sent both of the runners out to recon a small military airbase several kilometers south of the base, and when they didn't check in, Scott sent Wick and his boys to find out their whereabouts.

After a short silence, Wick cleared his throat again. "Any word from Sergeant Ponder and his men?"

"About an hour ago he reported in that he had in fact blown the ammunition dump, but he had come under heavy fire from Centurions. We lost contact shortly after." Wick shifted uneasily on his feet for a few seconds, and Scott shook his head. "No, you're not going after them. He reported almost two platoons of Centurions at that base. I'll send in the Falcons to carpet bomb the area before you go in."

"Right," Wick didn't seem happy about the order, but knew he couldn't question the logic of three men going against more than fifty Centurions. "How many Falcons are left?"

Scott picked up his cup of coffee that he had been drinking and sipped it. "Three. Santosh, Killey, and Franks are all that is left. Ponder should have knocked out the anti-air before they went in though."

"Got it. If that's all, Scott I'll take my men to rearm and get some rest before we go in." Scott nodded and the three men left the room without another word.

As the man left, he thought back to the boy that had helped him out of the wreckage on the day that they had crashed. Since then, he had rapidly become one of the resistance's finest soldiers. Always willing and able.

Scott sighed deeply and sank back into one of the chairs. From the room that he had designated as the command center of the base, a large room that over looked a large open warehouse area, he gazed at the people below him. They were all scared, tired, and looking to him to find a way out of this mess.

He had been the ranking Colonial Officer when they had found this place. Among the survivors was part company of soldiers in the 3rd Leonian Army Battalion, more like a security force than an actual army, but during the opening days of the attacks, all of the officers and significant part of the company had been wiped out. That left him in command. Something that he did not want, but then again, no one wanted the holocaust either.

Now, he was trying to fight a war against a seemingly unstoppable force with dwindling numbers and supplies. Of the eight thousand more than a quarter of the people had been injured when they were found, and they had yet to find an able doctor. Of the Leonian regulars, there were only thirty-two of them left including Sergeant Ponder's men which could very likely be dead. They had found nine old F-65 Falcon bombers, relics from before the First Cylon War, and pressed them into use, but without able pilots their number dwindled to three now. The one thing they did have, however, was plenty of volunteers among the refugees.

"Looks like the runners weren't a waste after all." Scott had forgotten that Jessica was in the room with him. He swiveled in his chair to look at her data.

"What do you have?" He leaned into the table as she set out several pictures before him. Two of them were of dozens of Centurions. The other two were blurry, but there was no aruging the fact that they Centurions had herded dozens of people into large open cages.

"Prisoners?" Jessica asked putting the last few pictures in front of him. They were of several Colonial Officers lined up against a wall, Centurions with their guns out ready to fire. He could only imagine the gore of the next picture.

"More like death squads. They've got to be planning something down here, or they wouldn't be individually rounding people up to shoot them."

Jessica nodded. "Agreed. You still want the Falcons to go in?"

"Yeah, and tell Wick to get his best shots too. We're going to rescue those people."

**Battlestar _Retribution_, Battle of the Aquarion Shipyards**

"That's it, sir. They've taken the bait. The Basestars will be all over us in about forty-five seconds." Lieutenant Dollins said as she fired the decoy drones towards the Cylons.

Ward nodded and glanced at the DRADIS. They had picked up three Basestars just after jumping in, catching them by complete surprise, and also got a positive ID on the Battlestars. The _Argo, Acropolis, Nexus,_ and the best of all, the Orion.

"Basestars have launched missiles." Dollins reported coolly. All part of the plan. Ward thought watching the missiles streak towards them.

"Make it look good. Swat a couple down, but let the Cylons think they've got a golden bullet." The Operations officer quickly snapped to work and in seconds the point defense guns flared to life. The flak tore the missiles to pieces, but a small slip in the usually tight defenses let nearly a dozen missiles through.

The CIC shook slightly from the hit causing the lights to temporarily dim. "That's it pull the plug." A second later a call went down to the engineering deck to pull the FTL drives to make it look like they had lost their ability to run. "Send distress calls out."

Lieutenant Martel nodded and began sending false messages out to throw the Cylons off. As she worked, Ward turned to his Operations Officer. "Give us a full sublight burn for ninety seconds and get some distance between us and the station."

"Full sublight burn for ninety seconds. Aye, sir." The massive flag ship lurched as her engines were pushed to their limits.

Now they had the full illusion that they were outmatched, and without any means of running. Once they were clear of the station, the _Gladiator_ would jump in along with the marine assault ships to assault the Aquarion Shipyards. Hopefully, the Cylons would be drawn out far enough so that Weaver wouldn't be forced to fight off the Cylons alone. Of course, they wouldn't be fighting the Cylons alone either. Roughly forty-five seconds after the _Retribution_ came out of her burn, the _Titan_, Havoc and Athena would jump in to swiftly finish the Cylons.

"They've launched Raiders." Dollins reported.

Ward expected as much and had they Vipers ready in their tubes. "Launch the alert Vipers to meet them." The Lieutenant nodded and the order went through quickly.

The seconds ticked down, and another missile struck the aft portion of the ships, for they were still running from the Cylons, and finally the clock reached zero. Three flashes appeared just behind the Cylons revealing the trio of Battlestars that formed the ambush.

"I think it's time we stopped running and gave these bastards a taste of our guns." The Admiral said with a grin on his face. It was the first time that the Retribution had seen combat in this war. He was eager to see how she faired.

The massive Battlestar made a agile turn to bring her dorsal side to bear on the enemy, showing all of her twenty four oversized dual guns to the enemy. She began rocking as the main guns unleashed their first salvo on the confused enemy. Their over confidence and blind ambition to kill their enemy had let them fall straight into a perfect killing zone.

The Retribution's first salvo slipped through the Cylon's defenses to the first Basestar, doing tremendous damage to its center spire. The crippled Basestar launched a dozen of its nuclear missiles, no doubt in a last ditch effort to save their ship, towards the Retribution. The triple A defense guns shifted their fire from the non-nuclear missiles, allowing the dozens of missiles to slip through unscathed, and destroyed them.

Ward gripped the command table as the missiles slammed into their port side flight pod. Consoles sparked and flared from the impact within the CIC, but the officers continued their work. Damage control sirens began blaring in response to the hits. "Get DC crews down there as needed! Vent the damn fires if you have to!" He yelled over the commotion in the CIC.

After no more than a minute of concentrated fire, the first Basestar exploded in a massive ball of flame. The CIC cheered in response to their first kill. The guns quickly swiveled on their axis' and found new targets. Under the concentrated fire from the three Battlestars, the Cylons were quickly dispatched.

Officers and crewmen alike congratulated one another within the CIC for their victory. Allyson stood silently by the Admiral with a smile on her face. "How do you think the others are fairing?"

The Admiral laughed, "If I know McGrath, then they'll already have the Cylons running with their tails tucked between their legs."

**Battlestar _Orion_, Just outside of the Aquarion Shipyards**

Major General Richard McGrath stood in the front of his personal assault raptor just behind the pilot and co-pilot. Behind him were twelve marines in full BDUs and armed for bear. "Nemesis, this raptor 364. We have cleared the bay and are beginning our approach to the shipyards." The communications officer confirmed their leaving and directed them to land in the starboard hanger of the Battlestar _Orion_.

The General looked out the small window of the raptor to see sixty raptors streaming towards the shipyard, all from his flag ship, the Marine Assault Ship _Nemesis_. Behind his ship was the Battlestar _Gladiator_ setting up a defensive position to protect the vulnerable Assault Ship. Tiny specs drifted around both ships and McGrath recognized them as the MK VIII vipers from Helios. Good. He thought. At least if the Cylons jumped a flight of Raiders in here they wouldn't be torn to bits by the _Gladiator's_ main guns.

"General, we're making our final approach on the Orion. Thirty seconds until touchdown. "He nodded and turned around to look at the marines behind him. Each of them had served with him for years and were the best that he could find.

"Roughnecks! Weapons check!" He always used their squad name when talking to them. It made each of them grin when he said it. It made them feel elite, like they couldn't be stopped. The entire squad sounded off after the symphony of preparatory snaps and clicks was finished.

The Raptor touched down on the hard deck and the raptor's loading door swung open. Within seconds, the marines were on the decks, sprinting to check that the area was clear. The General leveled his side arm and stepped forth behind the marines.

"Clear!" One marine called out. "Clear!" The second yelled and so on and so forth until each man had checked in. Two raptors touched down behind them unloading more marines to the Havoc's flight pod.

The General ordered his men to their designated areas of the ship. They broke into their separate fire teams and exited the hangar deck. J's second in command, 1st Lieutenant Carson Vitar, walked up to his side. "Sir, fire team Bravo is waiting for you. They're headed to the CIC."

As if he didn't acknowledge Carson's presence, McGrath knelt down to the deck and scratched the metal grating. It chipped with dried blood. Near their current spot were shell casings from CX4 Storm, the standard issue firearm for Colonial Marines. "There was a battle here." McGrath said rising back up to look at the Lieutenant. "There's a lot of blood and shell casings, but no bodies." Carson looked down at the ground and cursed under his breath for not noticing the signs around them. "Tell all teams to stay on their toes. Whatever was here might still be around." Vitar nodded and turned to leave.

The General found Bravo waiting in a hall way just outside the hangar deck. The men nodded to him as he approached. "Sergeant Haverson, let's get moving." Haverson nodded his head and leveled his rifle as he stepped forward. Haverson had been under his command since the small brush fire war against pirate raiders around the colony of Tuaron close to six years ago. The man was a tremendous soldier, hardened through the fires of battle and an excellent combat leader.

As they moved down the dark hallway of the Battlestar, he couldn't help but feel that they were being watched. It continued to nag at him for the next few minutes until Sergeant Haverson held his hand up in a curled up fist. The entire fire team halted and raised their weapons. Ten seconds ticked by and nothing happened. Haverson turned his head to speak to the General, but was cut off by a metallic clanking far down the hall way. Everyone watched and waited. Twenty seconds ticked by. Nothing. Thirty seconds. Still nothing. The General got a sinking feeling in his stomach that something was terribly wrong.

Haverson stood up to start moving forward, but in a quick blur of motion, an organism, looking more organic than machine, had the marine by the throat with one arm. The other arm raised, brandishing a long blade for an arm, and was jammed through Haverson's throat. Blood spewed from the wound and the sergeant's body fell lifeless to the ground.

Still trying to comprehend what had happened, two marines instinctively raised their weapons, but too late. The machine slashed them across their stomachs with fatal wounds. Now each of the marines opened fire, blasting in the direction of the machine. It was too fast though. Three more marines fell to the ground in lighting fast speed. Suddenly, the machine jumped on top of the General, pinning him to the ground. "Frak!" He grunted as his body hit the cold floor of the Orion.

The man stared straight into the eye of the machine, which was shining a bright crimson red. "Come and get me you frakking toaster."

The General grunted from under the weight of the machine. Its arm raised for the finishing blow. The General threw all of his weight to his side to try and rock the machine off of him. The blade smashed into floor with tremendous force where his head had been moments before.

The machine hesitated for a brief second, puzzled that he had missed. Obviously something he had never done before. It wasn't long, but it gave McGrath enough time to free his arm and finish the machine. Grabbing his sidearm, he stuck it just under the Cylon's head and squeezed the trigger three times. There was a satisfactory snap as circuits fried inside its head. The machine collapsed on top of the General.

"General!" A marine private pulled the machine off of him and picked him up. The four survivors stood around him shocked at the scene had just unfolded in front of them.

"I'm fine! Stop staring and watch for more of those bastards!" The marines were well disciplined and quickly corrected themselves by swiveling around to check for targets. "Private Cutter, get on the wireless and tell all squads that we have a hot combat zone." Just as he yelled the order, the ceiling began pinging with as rounds hit the top of it.

"Sir! We've got Centurions!" The private opened fire down the hallway at the oncoming machines. He loaded his sidearm with an explosive round and aimed it down the hallway at the oncoming Centurion, squeezing the trigger. The machine detonated as the round slammed into it. Two more machines fell to the marines bullets. "Lets move! Get to the CIC!"

After fighting through dozens of Centurions, the General and his squad reached the CIC of the Orion. "Sergeant, set up a perimeter around the CIC." The sergeant nodded and moved to the CIC's hatch. The General walked to the communications panel and began tapping on the console to try to get the wireless working. The whole system was offline. A young Lieutenant from the Retribution moved past the General and began his work on the system.

"General McGrath. We've found prisoners." Two marines moved in with two Cylons hanging from their arms. They dropped them on the ground roughly and one marine gave the male Cylon a swift kick to the ribs. He doubled over and squirmed for a few seconds, but then lashed out at the marine, grabbing his sidearm from his belt and squeezing off three rounds into an engineer. The marines instantly opened fire, spraying the Cylon until he was cut in half and nothing but a bloodied pulp. The marines set the second Cylon up on her knees in front of the General. The Cylon's dark hair was hanging in front of her face. Small sobs could be heard in the silent CIC.

He walked towards the Cylon until he was within touching distance. She looked up at him and tears were streaming from her eyes. "Do you think what we did was wrong?"

The Cylon just sat crying to herself. He pressed the sidearm to her forehead for a few seconds before forcing her to look up at him. Finally, she spoke, "You slaughtered him…" The man cocked his sidearm and pressed it harder against the Cylon's head. The marines stood by and watched their General. "If you are going to kill me then just kill me. I've made my peace with God." She sobbed, not being able to take the pressure that was on her.

"You killed millions of our people and forced us onto these frakking ships!" The General yelled. Everyone in the CIC too an involuntary step back. "I should kill you right now."

The Cylon dropped her head again and the tears dropped down onto the cold deck of the CIC. McGrath unchambered the round on his sidearm and dropped it to his side. "But if I killed you, I'd be no better than your people." He looked at the two wide eyed marines. "Take her back to the Retribution. Let Ward decide what to do with her." The Cylon looked up at him shocked at the man's mercy. She continued to stare at him the whole time the two marines lifted her off of the deck and carried her out of the CIC.

**Battlestar _Retribution_, Flag Officer's Quarters**

It took them nearly a week, but they finally retrofitted one of the FTls from the Battlestar _Argo_ to the Aquarion Shipyards, newly dubbed the '_Hopeful_' and got the shipyards to Helios. The Argo had been stripped of all of her useful parts and left in a decaying orbit over Aquarion. The_ Acropolis, Nexus, Reverent_, and _Orion_ were all taken back to Helios and immediately sent to the Hopeful's docks.

The _Hopeful_ herself was an impressive sight. Six outer docking slips were able to take on the biggest six ships that they could try and tuck into her, or nearly twelve smaller crafts due to her unique separate docking clamps on each side of the slip. Nestled into the center of the massive station was a single "dry dock" for ships that needed massive overhauls and the crews could work without their suits.

The plans for their newly acquired ships were a bit shady. Without a proper deck chief or suitable commander for the station, no one could give him a straight answer for when his new ships would be operational.

The _Acropolis_ was to be completely gutted and refitted to be a makeshift hospital ship. She was to be stripped of weapons, aside from a few point defense guns, and part of her armor to make room for their new medical equipment and staff.

The _Nexus_ and _Reverent_ were to be given the bare minimum weapons and armor to get her pressed back into action as soon as possible. Despite their weaknesses, Ward planned to install a DRADIS system similar to that of the _Horizon_'s, nearly doubling their search range. This would allow him to get a separate ships patrolling the outer edges of their system along with the _Horizon_.

The Orion, his old flag ship, and the he decided to completely refit. He had to admit that it was his bias opinion, and love for the ship to not scrap even when she was in worse condition than the Nexus and Acropolis. The ship, in time, would become one of their main line units, as she should be.

All in all, he was satisfied with his fleet, aside from one small factor, the crews. With four new Battlestars, not to mention a massive station, they needed a tremendous amount of people to enlist. The recent victories over the Cylons had spurred some enlistments, but many people were still hesitant to join the Fleet.

Certain leaders, their own Doctor Allen even, had formed a sort of coalition to bring about the end of the military vice grip that they had over Helios. They wanted another civilian government to have power on Helios, but Ward wouldn't have it.

"Even with the increased enlistments, we're not going to be able to fully staff each of the ships. We're still well below the quota we need for the newer ships." Commander Shard dropped the reports in front of her in frustration. "We'll have to make more appeals to the civilians. Tell them anything that they want to hear."

Ward shook his head, knowing that her plan would never get them what they needed. "No, there's only one way to fill the empty positions about the fleet."

Shard and Forsell glanced to each other and back to the Admiral. "No, there's other ways, Admiral." Major Forsell spoke out in protest.

Ward raised his hand. "No there isn't. Whatever we do it won't be enough." Ward sighed, "I'll send word down to General McGrath to prepare to make up some sort of draft card, and if people start dodging the draft, then we'll just have to start impressing people aboard the ships. One way or another, we'll have our crews."

The two women nodded in silent agreement. "Allyson, I'm sending you ground side for the time being to help the General out."

"Yes, sir. I'll get you your crews, sir." She saluted and quickly left the room leaving the new CAG with the Admiral.

There was a few moments of silence after the Commander left the room. A sort of awkward moment with the new CAG and her superior officer. Hawke had been close to the Admiral, and she knew it. She felt more like an outsider that was just holding the position until he got back. She felt like she didn't belong, a fact that was actually truer than anyone knew.

"What are you thinking, Major?" He asked to break the silence.

The Major didn't say anything for a few seconds, choosing her words carefully. "Well, sir. If the civilian populations doesn't agree with the drafting and impressments, then we could be kicking over a hornets nest with this one."

"I know." Ward said. "With all that Allen has been stirring up I wouldn't be surprised if he jumped on this to get the public on his back."

"Then why go through with it, sir?"

"Because I'm fighting a war, Major, and I need every boat that I can get."

She nodded understanding, but not agreeing. "If that's all, sir?"

"Yes, you're dismissed." She stood and snapped a salute to the Admiral.

She started out of the room, but stopped before reaching the door. "I hope this doesn't blow up in our faces, sir." She added.

Ward sighed deeply. "Me too."

**Battlestar _Retribution_, Holding Cells**

The senior staff of the Battlestar stood just outside the glass window of one of the many holding cells. On the inside was a woman or rather a machine. Her cuffs were still on her and she sat against the back wall of the cell, staring out at the officers. One of the last to enter was Major Kasey Forsell. She knew full well what this woman was, and knew that it could very easily know who she was.

When the woman entered the cell block, several of her superiors, including Admiral Ward and the Commanding Officers turned to her. She saluted and quickly scurried to the back of the crowd of officers, trying to hide her face. As the Colonials spoke to one another, she simply stared at the face she hadn't seen in nearly three years.

Her dark tan skin was black and purpled from where the marine guards had hit her. Tear streaks were still on her face indicating that she was crying not to long ago. Her black hair was a tangled mess from the commotion since being brought aboard. She looked like hell, the Major thought.

Suddenly, the Cylon's eyes shot up and locked with hers. For a few seconds neither knew what to do but stare. Her body tensed up. How could she be so foolish as to let the Cylon see her? She tensed up in anticipation. She could very well be sharing a cell with that very woman. Quickly, the Major gave a quick shake to the head, as if to say 'say nothing'. The Cylon slowly dropped her head, and gave a small nod, small enough for no one to notice.

Her whole body relaxed, she had dodged a bullet, and continued to stay hidden from the Colonials. It wouldn't last forever, but she wasn't eager to come out and tell them.

**Planet Leonis, Just outside of the Cylon Holding Camp**

Scott sat silently in a small drainage ditch near the Cylon encampment. The pictures did no justice for the Cylon's ability to make a horrifying place. The complex itself was an old boarding school for the school kids that gave their parents and authorities enough hell to want to get them out of their hair. So naturally to start off the place was not the most pleasant, but when the Toasters added their own special touch to it, it was one of the most disturbing places in the twelve worlds.

Towering razor wire fences and four lumbering watch towers ominously guarded the outer perimeter, and on the inside was more razor wire a dozen more Centurions. The prisoners had been herded into large cages with barely enough room to turn around in. During parts of the days they had found out, the Colonials were let out to dispose of bodies taken from the surrounding cities. Gruesome work no doubt.

To his left and right were two dozen of the militia men that he had requested Wickham bring, armed to the teeth with CX4 Storms, RPGs and any explosive they could find. He couldn't look, for if he did the Cylons would no doubt see him and tear his head off with a single shot, but up above him on a small knoll to the north were two full squads of the Leonian Regulars, ready to rain hell down on the camp with mortars and more RPGs. When the Falcons hit the camp, they would storm it and release the prisoners. Easier said than done.

A soft humming in the distance quickly turned into a thundering roar over their heads followed by a deafening blast as the Falcon dropped their ordnance on the outer edge of the camp. Quickly, the resistance fighters popped out of their trench and scanned for targets amongst the charred outer wall.

Several Centurions struggled to stand as their arms or legs had been blown off, but were quickly put down as the fighters began shooting. A single tower still stood and the pair of Centurions manning it opened fire on the humans.

To his left, one of the fighters was torn in half by the Centurion's rounds. Scott quickly ducked as the bullets slammed into the dirt just above his head. Down the line, more fighters fell to the Cylon's rounds. The tower was picking them off too effectively.

"Stay down!" He yelled down the line as another fighter fell. It didn't take much to convince the fighters that it was a bad idea to pop your head out. Keying the wireless he brought with him, Scott said. "Corporal Hallagar, I need that tower gone now!"

"Yes, sir." A few seconds later, the high pitched wining of mortar rounds began as the regulars shelled the camp. The tower that had pinned them down exploded into a furry of splinters and chrome from a direct hit.

The lieutenant popped his head up to see a massive hole blown right into the camp. "Let's go!" The fighters charged into the camp through the Cylon's bullets and the regulars mortar and RPG rounds. Four of the fighters quickly fell and the entire force took cover behind what they could find.

The Centurions fired at anything that moved, out of fear of being overrun from the sheer numbers the Colonials had. As quickly as he could, Scott slid out from his cover and fired on closest Centurion. He spent nearly half a clip into the metal behemoth before it crumpled and fell to the ground.

Rounds began pinging off of the piece of scrap metal from the destroyed defenses that he was using for cover. The fighter that was sharing the cover with him was cut down from the Cylons fire. He slid back into cover once again, and listened as the Centurions metal clanking advanced on his position.

Just before they were too close, the Cylons exploded in a great ball of fire. Behind them, Scott could hear Wick yelling and when he slid out of cover again, he saw the boy triumphantly holding an RPG above his head. Crazy bastard. Scott thought to himself.

It took another few minutes to clear the camp of the remaining Centurions, but they finally broke open the cages to the holding cells. The prisoners poured out of the cells, hugging and thanking each of the officers and fighters.

Wickham silently slid up to his side. "I got the bill." Scott looked at him, not wanting to know the numbers. "Nine dead, fourteen wounded."

Scott sighed and slung his rifle across his back. "Actually, it is better than I expected. We didn't all die." The two men laughed a little at his morbid joke when a voice came from behind them.

"Are you in charge?" They turned to find a woman with torn duty blues of the Colonial Fleet behind them.

"I am. Who are you?" He asked.

She tried to straighten her uniform as best she could as if to make an impression of some sort, but only succeeded in making herself look like a fool. "Commander Nita Oriol of the Battlestar _Vanguard_ . I'll be taking command of this resistance."

**Raptor 287, On Tylium Hunting Mission**

"I'm just saying it frakking embarrassing dropping up in Raptors like this." Jacob complained from the back of the Raptor. James shook his head and silently watched the countdown timer as it dropped from two minutes. "We're Viper pilots, we shouldn't be stuck in these tubs searching for Tylium."

"Razor, our reserves dropped under fifty percent. We need more fuel and if you didn't know, this shit is hard to find. So the Admiral called on everyone that was rated to fly one of these things." He explained, despite having just gone over it with him not ten minutes ago. Now just shut up and check your scans."

"Is that an order, sir?" He put a heavy emphasis on the word 'sir'

James let out a little laugh. Jacob had been having a hard time taking him as his new squadron CO. "If it gets you to shut up, then yes it is."

The last minute passed by in silence. "Jumping in: 3, 2, 1… Now." The Raptor disappeared as it made its jump, and seconds later reappeared on the outer edge of a small asteroid belt.

"Starting my sweep now." Jacob called out professionally. Despite hating the job, he could have made a decent ECO. He worked the electronic equipment like a genius, and never missed a thing on the scanners. "Oh, frak…"

Before he could say anything else the DRADIS chimed several times. "I see it." James' eyes widened as he saw the two Cylon Basestars come into view through the canopy.

"They're launching Raiders!" Jacob called out. "Spooling FTL! Buy me a minute and a half!"

James tore back on the stick and the Raptor flipped end over end. The thrusters engaged moments later and the Raptor sped away from the incoming Raiders. James watched the DRADIS as the Raiders launched a salvo of missiles at them. The countdown clock was at one minute, and the missiles would take no longer than thirty seconds to reach them.

_This is it, we're dead_.


	5. Chapter 5: Fearless

Ok here is chapter five. Sorry it took so long (nearly two months) but I promise to get the next few chapters up within the next few weeks. As always, please leave me a review I like hearing from you guys.

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><p><strong>Battlestar <strong>_**Retribution**_**, Flag Officer's Quarters**

"John, come in." The man nodded and sat down across the desk from his superior. "Can I get you a drink?" Boward nodded and accepted the glass of Ambosia before they began their meeting.

"I'm sorry to call you back for this, John, but I need you elsewhere." Boward simply nodded, not minding where he was or what he was doing. "I'm taking the Titan from you and dropping you into the Hopeful." Boward's demeanor didn't change a bit. Like a frakking rock. Ward thought. "You and the officers that came from _Fimbul_ with you are about the only ones in the fleet who have ever served aboard a station."

"I understand, sir. And if you were worrying about me not liking being aboard a station, don't. If I hated the stations like you do, then I would have retired before I was ever aboard the _Fimbul_." Boward finally cracked a smile.

"Good, because the civilians contractors I have in charge right now are fighting amongst themselves like they're still trying to bid on jobs." The two men chuckled a bit.

"Give me two days and I'll have a clear report for you. Give the civilians control over anything and they'll think of their pockets first, even if there's no need for money." Again the two men laughed. In fact, the monetary system was becoming a huge problem within the civilian population on Helios.

Boward emptied the contents of his ambrosia glass and had it filled again. Swishing the liquid about the cup for a second he asked, "Who will take command of the Titan?"

"Your XO, Natalie Collins. I think she is competent enough."

Boward nodded in agreement. "She's a fine officer. She'll do just fine in command of the Titan." A few moments of lingering silence filled the office before Boward spoke up. "If that's all, Admiral?"

Ward finished his glass and slid it onto the table and stood. "Yes, and Boward, I'm promoting you to Rear Admiral to take the station."

Boward nodded and stood up as well. "Thank you, sir."

"I'd have the pins for you, but the damn jeweler is taking forever. I'll send them to you on the Hopeful."

The man snapped a quick salute, which Ward returned. "That'd be just fine, sir."

"Good luck, John." The new Admiral turned and quickly left the office.

Ward dropped back down into seat, just beginning to get comfortable again when there was a knock at his door. Sighing, he called out. "Enter."

Moments later, Doctor Allen and two of his assistants entered his cabin. "Admiral Ward."

"Doctor." He mutter, unhappy at his unexpected arrival that was sure to be nothing more than a pain in the ass to him. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, Admiral, we've heard some rumors that you've been finding a large quantity of ships recently." Allen and his men remained standing before his desk.

The Admiral nodded, 'Yes, we've found a handful of civilian ships, no survivors so far."

The Doctor flashed a little grin and began to pace back and forth a little. "Yes, yes we assumed as much. We would like to know if those ships could be spared for civilian use, since they aren't of much use to the military we were thinking of landing them on the planet so we could extra living space. You know it is a little cramped with the survivors that your ships are bringing in."

"No." Ward sat back in laughed on the inside at Allen's expression, he'd obviously come in here expecting the complete opposite.

"Wha- What?" His confusion quickly turned to anger. "All you think of is the military! We need more shelters down there! What possible use could you have for using those ships!"

Ward calmly leaned forward and locked his gaze with Allen, "Well, Doctor, you make a valid point, but I have a few questions for you." Allen nodded, willing to take his questions.

"Would you happen to have several mining ships in your possession? Or how about areas capable of being retrofitted as ammunition ships or tylium refineries." Allen seemed to become a bit more nervous as he shifted on his feet.

"Well no…"

"Then I'm sorry Doctor. I know it must be a little cramped for you now, but we are at war and fueling our war machine takes a little more precedence over you having a little more comfort. These ships will be pressed into service and I am still looking for crews to man them. So if your people planet side would like to be on these ships then have them enlist. Other than that, they're staying in orbit under the control of the military."

The Doctor nodded, "Very well, Admiral." He turned and nodded to his two men and they promptly left the room.

There was a few lingering moments as Allen gathered his words together. "One more question. Have you put any consideration into my suggestion?"

Again, Allen looked nervous and out of place, "No you haven't? Or no it won't happen?"

"Both, I'm not handing over control of our most important asset to a fledgling civilian government. President Adar issued martial law just before the fall, and that is how it will stay until this war is over."

Allen scoffed at the Admiral, "This isn't a war. We're just prolonging our own deaths!"

The Admiral shot out of his chair and smashed his hands on his desk. The wide-eyed Allen took several involuntary steps back from the desk. "Don't ever speak like that around me again. We're fighting so you can have a future you self-absorbed frak!" He was now fuming. "Get out of my office… Now!"

Allen jumped a bit at the end and quickly scurried out of the office. Ward dropped heavily back down into his chair. Pompous ass. Allen was becoming more of a pain in the ass the more that he looked into the political side of Helios. No doubt his new friend, Governor Sax, from Queenstown was whispering things in his ear.

A few months ago, he would have plucked him from Helios and thrown him on the _Nyx_ with the rest of the spooks he brought along, but now he was held in to high of regard by the people. One more act to anger the civilian population, and they turn on him. Something he couldn't afford now.

**Raptor 287, On Tylium Hunting Mission**

"Drop the damn decoy drones!" James yelled back to Falls. The missiles were gaining on them fast, and they'd be dead in less than fifteen seconds if they didn't do something.

A second later, a decoy drone dropped from the underside of the Raptor and immediately broke to starboard. James pulled the stick to port, trying to gain some distance between them and the missiles. The missiles arced sharply and followed the decoy drone as it broke away.

"They're taking the bait!" Jacob breathed a sigh of relief, but James knew better.

The missiles quickly caught up to the slower decoy drones, and exploded in a massive ball of shrapnel. Pieces of metal struck the Raptor, tearing massive holes in her bulkheads. A moment later, one of their engines whined against the extra pressure and blew out.

"Frak!" James cursed as the Raptor was forced into an uncontrolled spin. The gees pressed him back against his seat as he began fighting with the controls to hopefully get them to stop spinning.

The maneuvering thrusters sputtered for a few seconds before firing to counteract their spin. Within a few seconds the detonation, the Raptor was finally going relatively straight.

The Raiders had passed right by the Raptor, thinking their shots would surely kill the slow moving target. The Captain watched as they nimbly flipped end over end and headed straight for them again. This time, they wouldn't miss, and with no FTL or sublights, they couldn't even defend themselves.

He closed his eyes, anticipating the missile's hit. Any second they would be blown into a million pieces. Five seconds ticked by, nothing. He cracked his eyes open, and the Raiders were no longer pursuing them. "Jacob, do you have anything on the DRADIS?"

"DRADIS is shot to hell, I'm blind. Why haven't they those Raiders finished us?" James was asking himself the exact same thing.

The Raptor slowly drifted to starboard, and after nearly a minute, they caught a glimpse of what had happened. A single _Jupiter_-Class Battlestar had engaged the trio of Basestars, and the Raiders were now tangling with several MK VIIs.

"Thank the frakking gods for the _Gladiator_." Jacob began moving up from the back of the Raptor.

"I know. Why is she here though?"

"Not sure, but I'm really not going to ask questions while my frakking heart is still going a million miles an hour." Jacob laughed and pressed his hand over heart.

Several minutes passed as the _Jupiter_ engaged the Basestars, not destroying any of them, but rather just engaging to hold them off. Another Raptor circled their ship and finally attached itself and began to tow them back to the Battlestar. It seemed just as they hit the deck that the ship jumped into FTL.

"They get shit done here on the _Gladiator_." Jacob joked as the ship lurched from the trucks towing it down to the hangar deck.

"Lets go meet our heroes." James smiled and stood up from his seat and made his way to the hatch. The door hissed as it pressurized with the other side and slide open. The two pilots stepped out of the hatch and onto the wing to be met by twenty armed marines. Each of their weapons was trained on them as an officer stepped forward.

"Identify yourself." The officer called out to them, the marines around him looked like they were ready to kill.

James glanced quickly to Jacob who had taken a step back into the Raptor as if it would shield him if the marines opened fire. Stepping forward he said, "Captain James Atlas of the Battlestar _Retribution_. Tell your men to stand down, lieutenant."

"I can't do that, sir." The officer said. "Relinquish your side arms to my men and come with me." Neither of the two officers moved an inch, and after a few seconds the lieutenant sighed. "My men won't hesitate to shoot you, Captain."

Reluctantly, the two men placed their weapons on the side of the Raptor's wing. As the marines rushed them Jacob whispered, "I think I'd rather take my chances with the Cylons than these fraks."

"I know, we're frakked here." The marines cuffed the officers and dragged them off to the brig.

**Gunstar **_**Vulture**_**, Outer System Patrol**

"Give us a full sub-light burn! Everything she can handle!" Colonel Nathan Slider shouted to his officers. "All batteries switch to salvo fire and blanket the area around us! I want nothing getting through until we jump!" The Gunstar rocked violently as a pair of missiles struck her port side.

"Minor damage to the landing bay is being reported. They won't be able to launch Vipers if we take another hit though." One of the crewmen was standing at the DC panel taking in the reports.

"Frak it, we don't have time. Keep the Vipers in their tubes." Slider looked to the DRADIS. The Raiders would be all over them in thirty seconds. "Status on the FTL?"

"Ninety seconds, sir." An officer called out. He let out a long winded string of curses under his breath.

How did they find them? The damn sensor beacons were supposed to be unmanned right now, but it was the only logical explanation. Not even ten minutes and they were on top of them. Again the ship rocked from a missile hit.

"Raiders are in firing range, sir. They'll pass into range of our guns in ten seconds." The Paladin-Class's guns arced up and found the first wave of Raiders right in their cross hairs. The guns flared to life and within seconds nearly a dozen Raiders were ripped apart. Just after the first barrage, she launched a salvo of anti-fighter missiles. They flew right into the forward ranks of the Raiders, tearing them apart. At least they could hold their own against the Raiders, but the four Basestars hot on their tails were a different story.

"Ten seconds and we'll jump!"

"Raiders are launching another salvo of missiles! Radiological alarms are going crazy!"

"Jump us now, Lieutenant!" Slider held his breath as the nukes streaked towards his ship.

Just before they hit, the Vulture disappeared into a flash of light.

**Two hours later, Battlestar **_**Retribution**_** Flag Officer's Quarters**

"Colonel, I'm glad to see you're alright." Ward said as Slider entered his quarters. A look of paranoia was still on his face.

Slider snapped a quick salute. "Thank you, sir."

After the more formal greetings, Ward got straight down to business. "Tell me what happened, Colonel."

"Yes, sir." The Colonel took a few brief seconds to collect his thoughts and then began retelling his story. "We were making routine jumps. We go in, scan the area, and then jump out. On our forth jump, we had just begun our scans when four Basestars jumped in right on top of us. It was too much like Commanders Little and Besant's encounters to be a coincidence."

Ward sighed deeply, pinching the bridge of his nose as he thought. "Did you spot a beacon while you were there?"

The Colonel shook his head. "No, sir. We weren't there long enough to do anything other than jump. We damn near burned out our drives jumping so quickly."

"Better than you getting killed." Ward said, the Colonel simply nodded. "We'll need to follow up on this. I'm going to dispatch the Horizon to the location you were at last scan for a beacon."

Slider continued to nod, but stayed silent, as if he was ashamed of the ambush that his ship suffered. "We've pulled into the Hopeful, sir. We shouldn't need much time for repairs."

"Very good. I'll need all of my ships operational if we're going to stave off this threat for good." Ward took the handset from its holster on the wall near his desk, and asked for the Horizon's commanding officer to report to him.

Slider stood up from his seat, snapping a salute to his superior. "I've got a lot of work to do, sir."

Ward nodded and returned the salute, and with that the Colonel was out of the room leaving Ward in utter silence again. He listened to the constant humming of the Retribution's engines. He had become so accustomed to that it was almost like listening to the wind, most of the time you don't even hear it.

The silence was broken when a knock came at his door almost an hour later. He ushered the new Major in and got him squared away with a glass of ambrosia like he did with all of his officers, despite the man being barely old enough to have the drink.

"Major, I'm assuming that the scuttle-butt has already gotten around that the _Vulture_ was attacked." Talvert nodded, confirming that the rumors did travel fast especially within the Hopeful's dockyards. "It seems the Cylons regrouped a hell of a lot faster than we had anticipated. They're already striking our outer patrols."

"What I need to know, is how you were able to spot those damn beacon when we haven't been able to." He felt foolish for not finding this out while the Cylons were still scattered about trying to regroup.

"Yes, sir. The beacons are designed to virtually undetectable so their prey wouldn't see the attacks coming." Talvet started. "And they would be, aside from one minor flaw. The beacons emit a trace signal, we figured that it was how the Cylons kept tabs on all of their beacons. It is very easy to miss if you're not looking for it, but if you are, then you'll catch it every time."

The Admiral rubbed the back of his head and sighed loudly. "That's all? I could show our commanders what to look for and we could wipe the out here and now?"

Talvert shook his head. "No, sir. We'd have to refine the sensors of the larger warships since the signal too trace for their sensors to pick up. Just about the only ones that would be able to hit these beacons would be the _Nexus_ and _Reverent_."

"And they're still Gods know how long from being operational." Ward said.

Talvert agreed, but spoke up again. "The _Sentinel's_ sensors could be tweaked in a short time and could be fielded against the beacons."

Ward nodded in agreement. "They won't stand a chance if they get caught by the Cylons, so I want you to brief the commanders on how to get in and out as quickly as possible since you've been the only one to hit these things."

"Yes, sir. The _Horizon_ will be finished with repairs by the end of tomorrow. We'll be under way as soon as possible." The Major said standing up.

Ward stood as well. "I'll have the _Sentinel_ commanders report to your ship at 1300 hours."

"Very good, sir." Talvert snapped a salute and left the office.

**Fleet Repair Station **_**Hopeful**_

Rear Admiral Boward looked out of the large viewing ports in the Commanding Officer's suite. The view was expertly designed to give the CO a view of each of the docking slips around the station from either one of the view ports to starboard and port. The only thing he couldn't see from the suite was the dry dock within the station.

The _Reverent _and _Nexus_ were in his direct view at the moment, and he watched as the deck crews worked diligently on the stripped ships. It had been close to three weeks since they had brought the ships into dock, and two since he had been on station. It had taken him nearly the whole time to straighten out the mess that the contractors had made. For instance, the _Reverent_ and _Nexus_ were undergoing repairs from two separate contractors. The Nexus was planned to be finished within another month, but the Reverent wasn't due to be completed for close to three. Supplies were slow to come into the station, and even slower to get to the job sites due to the feuding civilians. The whole thing was frakked when he had arrived.

He had taken over, much to the contractors dislike, and straightened out the entire operation with military efficiency. It turned out that the _Nexus_ wasn't as close as they had thought to being completed. After a series of heated debates, it was finally decided that the _Nexus_ and _Reverent_ would take the priority over the _Orion_ and _Acropolis_, which had been renamed as well to the _Mercy _due to her new status as a hospital ship. Even though their sensor packages had already been installed, their armor and weapons would take a bit longer to install, maybe a month and a half to finish.

Boward turned away from the viewing port and back to his suite. Obviously, the _Hopeful's_ last commander had plenty of time, and money, to redo the command suite. The walls were decorated with expensive artwork, and the viewports had lavish crimson drapes around them, which seemed to be a waste since the ports had auto-tint to dim the direct sunlight from coming in. The floors had expensive Piconian rugs, worth probably thousands of cubits, placed before the doors and under the equally expensive coffee table from Canceron. Each of the expensive items were accompanied by equally expensive items that he did not even know the first thing about.

"It's a nice suite here." Master Chief Petty Officer Harold Davik, the Chief of the Deck on the Hopeful, said. "Better than the room I got."

"It seems her last CO had a bit more time on his hands than we do." Boward said. "So how are the crews coming?" Civilians had been pouring in from Helios since they had arrived on station in a vain attempt to staff each of the ships.

"Not good." Davik sighed and paced from one end of the room to the other. "The _Nexus_ has about half of her crew as of the last group, but _Reverent_ has less than that" The Master Chief stopped pacing and began looking at a series of expensive vases on one of the shelves." As for the Mercy, she is staffed with any medical personnel that could be spared from the Battlegroup or Helios."

Boward shook his head. "Did the marines have to contain them too?" Several of the civilians that had been impressed into service had been "unruly" to put it nicely. Nearly two hundred extra marines had been sent to the _Hopeful _to supplement her one hundred and fifty current marines. There had yet to be a full blown riot, or even a concentrated resistance from the civilians on the station, but they weren't going to take any chances with their most valuable asset.

"No, surprisingly most were willing to go." Davik replied. "They kept saying that they could do more help on one of the hospital ships than on the individual Battlestars." Boward nodded, seeing the logic in that. Davik continued. "The _Orion_ has her Viper pilots like the others, but no actual crew as of right now." The Viper pilots were easy to come by, due to the masses that poured into the flight training academy that the _Halo_ had opened up before all of the political unrest had begun.

"Well, we're on our way to getting our newest ships in to the fray. Keep up the good work, Chief." The Chief snapped a salute and exited the suite.

**Unknown Battlestar, Cell Block**

A loud crash sounded in the background as James was startled awake. _Frak. Back to this hell hole._ He thought as he awoke from a dream of a beautiful Caprican beach. He pushed himself up off of the bunk and into a sitting position on the edge of the bed. Rubbing his eyes, he looked up to see an older man, probably older than Ward standing before him bearing the rank insignias of a Vice Admiral. Under normal circumstances, he would have shot out of his seat to attention, but seeing how they had captured him at gunpoint, he wasn't eager to display his military conduct.

James simply looked up at the Admiral, still trying to allow his eyes to adjust to the bright lights behind the man. He was flanked by a pair of marines in full BDUs and armed weapons. "How can I help you, Admiral?" James stood up to see Jacob sitting on the bunk opposite him.

The Admiral continued to stare at him, studying the two for a long minute. Finally, he cleared his throat. "From the way you two acted when we rescued you…"

"Rescued us? You shoved a dozen rifles in our faces! I'd hardly call that a rescue!" Jacob shouted before the man could finish saying his sentence. Quickly, the two marines descended on the lieutenant and shoved the barrels of their weapons in his face. Jacob grit his teeth and sat back into the bunk.

The Admiral continued, "When we rescued you, and from the obvious patches on your uniforms I can assume that you aren't from the _Oceanus_."

James pulled his undershirt on while and continued to keep his back to the man. "I'd say you're a real private eye, Admiral."

The man let out a mocking laugh and stepped closer to the bunk, picking up his flight jacket. "The BSG-86 Battlestar _Retribution_." He said. "Can you tell me who commands that ship?"

James turned around to face the man finally. "I could, but I don't even know who commands this ship, or even what this ship is."

The man straightened himself, obviously immensely proud of his old _Jupiter_-Class. "I am Vice Admiral Daniel Dax, commanding officer of what is left of the Battlestar Group 18 and the _Fearless_."

James grinned and stepped a bit closer to the Admiral. "How did the Cylons not kick your ass all across the galaxy by now in the piece of shit tub, especially commanded by someone like you." The quick lash out was a bit out of turn for him, but he felt like he'd heard the name Dax before, like a distant memory.

He watched as the two marines took a step forward, but the Admiral halt them before anything could be done. "Like me?"

"Yeah, what kind of coward grabs his own people and throws them into the brig without a second thought?" James stared the man straight in the face, and the Admiral only stared back. Neither was prepared to flinch.

After a long silence, Dax finally spoke. "We've had some trouble with the last group of survivors we found."

"Last group?" James visibly relaxed, more curios now than angry. "The _Oceanus_?"

"Yes, they've been… Less than friendly." Dax broke eye contact and paced to the rear of the cell. "Now are you going to tell me who is in command of your ship? Maybe even tell me where they are?"

The Captain shook his head and sat back down. "Can't do that, sir."

The Admiral looked taken aback by this. "And why not"

"Security purposes." The Admiral frowned. "What happened with the _Oceanus_?"

"Long story short, they attacked us." Dax started toward the exit of the cell, the two marines followed.

Intrigued with the _Oceanus_, he called after the Admiral. "Can I get more details than that?"

"No." Dax exited the cell and walked around the thick glass.

"Right." He muttered sitting back down.

Dax sighed deeply and looked back at the two. "Well, I'll be back when I can find a use for you."

"Fine, we'll be right here." James dropped back down onto his bunk

**Patrol Frigate **_**Horizon**_

David Talvert entered the CIC of his little Patrol Frigate and was met by his new XO, Captain Paul Nyde. Nyde, another cadet that had served with him since the fall, had just recently been promoted to XO after his old XO was "out of commission" as they had put it in the reports to Ward.

"What's the word, Major?" The Captain asked as he moved to the command table.

"We're going hunting," The Major passed right by the Captain and began looking over the reports he had missed while being on the flag.

Nyde sighed heavily and rested his hands on the table. "I know I'm not her, but you do need to tell me more than that, Dave."

Talvert shot a glance to the Captain, "I know." He hesitated for a bit. "I'm sorry, there's a lot going right now."

The Captain nodded, as if he knew what was happening. "How is she doing?"

The Major put the reports and focused his attention on his XO. "She's due in two months. I don't know what will happen afterwards though. I'm thinking about sending her down on Helios."

Nyde slowly nodded choosing his words. "She's a damn fine officer. You willing to lose her like that?"

"If it means my daughter being safe, then yes." The Major said without hesitation.

Nyde nodded and then changed the subject after a short awkward silence. "What are we hunting?"

"Sensor beacons. Back to the same old rut." Talvert resumed looking over the reports that he had abandoned earlier.

"Frak. We didn't get them off of us did we." Nyde dropped his hands down onto the command table, leaning heavily on it.

He knew the news would be hard for the crew to go back to hunting the beacons. They had all lost something in the months they waged their guerilla campaign. Many had simply broken under the constant pressure they were under, and more had been killed from the constant fighting.

"No. I've just gotten back from briefing the rest of the _Sentinel_ officers. At least we're not going out alone this time."

Nyde didn't seem any more enthusiastic about going out . "I guess there is a silver lining."

"Do you have the coordinates for the others we were planning on hitting before finding the Fleet?" The Major asked, still not looking up from the reports.

"Yes, sir." The XO nodded.

"Good. Plot a jump and bring us up to condition one."

Nyde turned away to begin issuing orders to officers. Finally, he picked up the handset. "Action stations, actions stations. Set condition one throughout the ship. All hands prepare for a combat jump." He replaced the handset and waited for the Major to continue.

"Load missile tubes Alpha through Omega with the Hammerheads." Nyde once again picked up the handset and began barking orders. "We're not sticking around long enough for anyone to show back up."

Several minutes passed as the ship readied themselves for combat. Crewmen loaded the massive missiles into their tubes carefully, while the engineering crews prepared the FTL for quick back-to-back jumps. Finally, they were ready.

"Jump the ship, XO." Talvert ordered, and within second, they were in range of another beacon._ Back in the rut._ He thought as the missiles plumed from his ship. Two weeks later, they'd be fighting the same fight.

**Battlestar **_**Fearless**_**, Forward Observation Deck**

Two marines had pulled him from his cell and slapped a pair of handcuffs on him without even so much as a single word being said. Then they virtually carried him out of the cell and into the corridors of the Fearless. A second pair of marines had taken up position around them, one in front, one in back. Groups of both civilians and crewmen alike gather around to watch the procession unfold. Joker took another quick glance at the marines' faces, and began to wonder if they were there to keep him from getting out, or to keep the people from getting in.

Finally, the entire group made their way into the forward observation deck where they found Admiral Dax standing just in front of the massive viewport. The Admiral turned to the marines. "Take the handcuffs off and leave us." The marines began to undo his handcuffs, but were slow to leave. "He's not our enemy, now leave. That's an order." He then turned back to the view port.

The marines nodded and took their leave. Dax motioned for him to come closer. "Captain, come here." The Admiral said without turning away from the observation port. "Eighty-one thousand people all crammed onto fifty-eight vessels. That's what our existence has been reduced to."

James nodded and looked out onto the fleet. He could see several heavy mining ships, the kind that the bigger tylium corporation used to use, at least one foundry ship, and what looked to be a trio of botinanical cruisers. All ships that would be handy for surviving a mass genocide.

"How did you survive, Admiral? I figured that all of the units that were still in the colonies had been "modernized" by Dr. Baltar's CNP."

"First off, we weren't in the colonies when the attack started, we were just on the outer edges mining some of the richer tylium deposits and providing security from pirate attacks. Second, you make it sound like you weren't in the Colonies yourself when the attack hit. Where were you?"

_Frak_. He'd slipped up. "This isn't an interrogation is it? You might as well just lock me up if it is."

Dax chuckled at that and shook his head. "No, not anything like that. I just don't want to make any enemies of my own people."

"Sounds reasonable enough, sir. But if you don't mind me asking, what is your story? It just seems like most of you made it out of the hell we were all caught in."

He sighed deeply and just stared out onto the fleet for a few moments. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to tell you. It's not like you're going any where."

"We didn't all make it." Dax started. "When the attack began, the Eighth Battlestar Group was out defending our mining operations, as I said before. A single Basestar jumped in right on top of us. I lost sixteen ships in the blink of an eye. Only us, the _Perseus_, and _Oceanus_ survived the battle, and that was only through sheer luck that those ships didn't have the CNP installed in them yet.

"Basically, we panicked and ran. We jumped from system to system, picking up survivors as we went along. Two weeks after the attacks, we had seventy-one ships with us. I decided to turn over some of the power to the civilian fleet, to try and reinstate some form of government among the people." Dax shot a look at him before continuing. "That was when Commander Ashur snapped."

"Snapped, sir?" So the Oceanus had been part of Dax's fleet before their intense stand-off, or whatever it was they were doing.

Dax nodded solemnly, "He started becoming fanatical about the military being in complete control. He blamed the civilian government, especially Adar, for the Cylons returning. He thought that they would lead us to our doom again, and let the Cylons finish what they started. I went ahead with the new Quorum of Twelve, and even got as far as getting a president for the new fleet. The majority of the fleet disregarded him as a crazed lunatic, so he turned to action.

"Before I even knew what was happening, he had fired on the ship we designated as "Colonial One", destroying it in one swift blow. He launched his assault Raptors, landing on six of the civilian vessels, including our only food processing ship, and captured all of them. I hesitated… I hesitated and let him fire first. I had the chance to finish him there, but I didn't take it. I thought he could still be talked down. The bastard split one of our flight tubes right open and jumped before we could fire a shot."

"All of that just because of a civilian government?" James asked quietly after a moment of silence.

"No, he had been speaking of leaving all of the civilians that weren't producing anything for the fleet for a long time. He's been raiding our fleet from time to time, picking off straggling civilian ships as he goes along."

"Ashur just left everyone behind that didn't benefit him, and tried to destroy anyone that got in his way. He became a pure survivalist."

"Aren't we all just trying to survive?"

"But if we lose our humanity in the process, how are we any better than the Cylons?" Dax brought his gaze over to him, and let it bore deep into him. The captain broke eye contact and let his eyes drift out onto the fleet.

"We aren't." The Admiral nodded in agreement, and the room fell silent for a few seconds.

"You know, sir, I finally remembered where I'd heard your name."

The Admiral laughed heartily out loud before throwing a wry smile at him. "You'd have to go pretty far back in the history books to find anything about me."

"I'm a fan of history, sir." James shrugged. "BSG-13, the Battlestar _Fearless_, hero of the Battle of the Picon Line. She stood toe-to-toe with a pair of Baseships, protecting a dozen medical ships as they evaced thousands wounded marines off of Tuaron. I heard there was some young crazy officer who was forced to take temporary command of the vessel while the commander fought his way through a Cylon boarding party to the CIC, and got promoted to XO of the ship. That was one of my favorite war stories as a child, Danny Dax, hero of Picon."

"You've certainly done your homework, but you know all about me, so it's time you tell me about yourself."

James hesitated for a second. He couldn't risk Helios' position just because the old man was a personal hero of his. "Captain James Atlas of the Battlestar _Retribution_. Just one of the many Viper pilots who was unlucky enough to survive the attacks. I'm afraid that's about all I can tell you. It's not my decision to just take you right to my ship's doorstep."

The Admiral finally turned back around to the empty room behind him. "And I'd be disappointed if you did. The _Oceanus_ is still out there, and so long as it is, it can still prey upon any ship it comes in contact with."

"What do you plan on doing about them?" James asked, following suit and turning around with the Admiral.

A small grin formed in the corner of Dax's mouth. "That's actually where you come in, Captain."

"Me? I don't know anything about the _Oceanus_." The two started towards the hatch where the marines were waiting.

"You don't need to, but if you help us with this, then I'll be willing to give you a shuttle to return to your ship." _And if I don't, then you'll throw me back into the brig for the rest of my natural life. _

"Seeing as I don't have much of a choice, what is it you want me to do?"

"We need you to help us destroy the _Oceanus_."

"Destroy them? Can not even the end of the worlds stop us from killing one another?"

"Apparently not."

James nodded._ Billions dead, and you're about to help kill another thousand. Just another frakking day in the Colonial Fleet_. "Alright. When do we start?"

"Right now." The group started out of the observation deck.

**Battlestar **_**Fearless**_**, Pilot's Ready Room**

"Captain Atlas, Lieutenant Falls, this is Captain Horson of the freighter _Selphia_. He'll be your ride for this operation." Dax motioned to the man, who just simply nodded. Jacob just glared at the Admiral and Captain, still not wanting anything to do with the men.

"This," Dax pointed to a picture posted up on one of the boards. "Is the Battlestar _Fearless_." It looked like standard _Jupiter_-Class Battlestar, but on its rear engine systems was a gaping hole in the battleplates, leaving part of them exposed to the harsh vacuum.

As if reading his mind, Dax pointed to the damaged section of the ship. "As you can see we damaged her slightly when see last tried to raid our fleet. This will be your target."

"So what is our plan?" Falls asked, leaning back against the railing near the door with his arms crossed.

"The plan is for Lieutenant Falls to take a diplomatic shuttle into the Oceanus' airspace and ask for a delegation from the Fearless to meet with us. Captain Atlas will pilot a Viper that will piggy back onto the underside of the shuttle during the FTL jump. When you're close enough, the Captain will detach and destroy the engines on the Oceanus so that she won't be able to jump away."

"I'll be waiting in the back for your Viper Captain, I'll be your ride out of there." Horson said nodding again to the pair of men.

"That means I'm supposed to just jump out when the shooting starts?" Falls asked.

"Yes, the Selphia is armored and fast enough to grab the Viper and get out, so you'll have no need to stick around." Dax explained. "You're there just for a diversion."

"So is there no way we can talk them down?" James wasn't about to help kill an entire Battlestar of people without trying something diplomatic first.

Dax shook his head, "They haven't listened to us, but if they'll listen to you, that's all the better."

"And what if we get captured?" Falls called out from the back.

"What?" Ward glanced back to the Lieutenant who hadn't moved from the railing the whole briefing.

"If the Oceanus somehow gets a hold of us? Do we just get fragged when you try to finish off the Oceanus and forget about us?"

Dax took a few steps forward until he was close enough to touch the Lieutenant, and yet Falls didn't flinch at all. "I don't leave my people behind, Lieutenant. If you do get captured, then we'll come get you, that I promise."

**Patrol Frigate **_**Horizon**_

"The signal here is stronger than the others." Captain Nyde said holding the report up.

"How much stronger?" Talvert wasn't facing the officers gather behind him, but rather pretending to read a pair of damage assessments that the Chief of Engineering had sent up about an hour ago.

"Almost four times stronger than any other beacon that's been placed." Talvert looked up from the assessment and handed it off to one of the crewmen as they passed by. The Major sighed, he didn't want to jump into another hot area, never mind one that was four times as large as the last, but something that big was probably worth the risk. "What are you thinking?" Nyde asked.

"I'm thinking that it's not just another beacon, and if I'm right, then Ward will need that intel." The two officers headed back towards the command table.

"You're probably right." Nyde said stepping up to his side of the small table.

Talvert chuckled and looked around at the officers in the CIC. "I know I'm right. Set Condition One and prepare to jump the ship."

"Aye, sir." The klaxon began blaring a few seconds later as the ship was prepared for combat, it had become a well-rehearsed drill, and now they could step up to condition one in less than two minutes. _Practice does make perfect. _Within three minutes, the _Horizon_ jumped to the Cylon beacon.

The small patrol frigate slipped out of its jump to be met with the blaring of warning alarms. The DRADIS instantly filled with fourteen Basestars and one massive station nestled in the middle of the formidable force. The Basestars launched full salvos of missiles almost immediately.

"Stand-by countermeasures! Begin active scanning of all targets and figure out what this damn thing is… Countermeasures fire!"

Several decoy drones dropped off from the underside of the _Horizon_ and vectored off away from the Frigate. Dozens of the missiles arced away and began tracking the false ship, buying them time.

"Sir, it looks like we've stumbled onto the Cylon staging area! This is where they've been launching their operations from!"

"Sweep the area one more time and then get us the frak out of here."

Minutes later, just before the second salvo was launched at them, the _Horizon_ flashed away once again. _Too close._ He told himself. He had tried to tell himself long ago that he was worried about the entire crew, but now he couldn't lie to himself anymore. He worried about her every time they made a jump. Each time he thought it might be _Horizon's_ last; he couldn't bear to lose them.

The _Horizon_ was still four jumps out from Helios, giving him over an hour before they'd be back in system, and another two for the sublight burn to the planet. _Plenty of time._ He looked to Nyde as he headed for the door. "XO has the conn."

He made his way through the corridors towards his quarters. The buzz of post-action activity still filled the hallways, but as crewmen always did; they parted and allowed the senior officer to pass before returning to their work. It was always something that made him uncomfortable, especially back when they were all cadets and his friends, but now they looked to him like a commanding officer just one of the burdens of command.

He opened the hatch to his quarters to find to find her sitting on the couch off to the side of their room. She was the picture of beauty to him. Over the last ten months, Nichole Mikusakas had become his life, his lover, and was soon to be the mother of his child. "How are you?" He asked as he entered the room.

"Fine, it has just been a little shaky. What's going on?"

"Just a little shoot out with a toaster OP. We're en-route to Helios right now. It'll be another few jumps before we get back."

"A shoot out? See I didn't ever get you into any shoot-outs." She laughed, brushing a piece of her black hair over her ear.

"Right, if I remember it correctly, we were in a shoot-out every other jump when you were across the table from me." The room grew quieter as he moved over to the couch and dropped down beside her, and slid his arm around her. "I want you to head groundside. It's just too dangerous leaving you two up here. We've been jumping into combat zones for the last six days."

She pushed away from him and stared at him. "What's the difference between you and me being up here? Even if I'm gone, you'll still be in danger. I don't want to be away worrying about you."

She stood up and turned her back to him and headed towards the back of their quarters. "It's different." He started. "I'm not seven months pregnant, Nichole, and I'm the Captain of this ship. I can't leave them."

She sharply turned around to him and threw her hands up. "Request a transfer ground side then. I just don't want to be down there by myself. I don't want to be away from you."

David was standing now, doing everything he could to try and convince her. "I can get Henke to look after you. They washed him out due to injuries just after we got to Helios. He's been down there for six weeks."

"I don't just want to be stuck with Henke! I want to be with you, David!"

Talvert moved over and placed his hands on her shoulder, gentely pulling her in so that their foreheads were touching. "I do too, Nichole, believe me, but I can't have you on this ship. I damn near kill myself out of worry every time we make a jump into a hot area. I have to know you're safe. Please, Nichole, please I have to know you're safe."

She reached up and wrapped her arms around him, the bulge in her stomach pressing against his. "Fine, but I want you there in two months."

"I will be, I promise. Nothing in the worlds could stop me from being there."

"Nothing?" She asked.

"Absolutely nothing."

**Nineteen hours later, Battlestar **_**Retribution**_** Commanding Officer's Quarters**

"The _Nyx_ got a better look at it than the _Horizon_ did, and Espino's readings say that all of the beacons' signals end here. This is their main staging area." Allyson dropped the first file onto the small coffee table only to pick up another one a second later.

"What's the final count on the Baseships?" Ward asked as he finished shaving and began patting down his face with a towel. He took up the report she was holding out.

"Anywhere from fourteen to sixteen Basestars at one time." She said, and Ward sighed deeply and tossed the report down on the coffee table.

"We'll need a plan, Allyson." Ward moved back to the mirror and began checking his face again.

"I'll have one hammered out by the morning." She said taking the hint. "There's one more thing. Lieutenant Fel has asked to head back to Captain Atlas' last position again."

"She's been out there four times already." He said turning back around to her. The Admiral grabbed his duty jacket, sliding it on and heading for the door.

Allyson quickly scooped up the reports and followed the Admiral out the door. "The Valkyries have been up in arms since he disappeared, they don't like losing one of their own. Besides, you can't deny that the whole thing is puzzling. All that's there is a damaged hulk of a Basestar, Joker didn't have the ordnance aboard to that amount of damage."

"Are you saying someone else is out there, Commander?" The pair rounded the corner and stopped just short of the CIC.

"I'm just taking everything into account here, Dan."

Ward rubbed his cleanly shaven face for a second as he weighed his options. "Alright, tell her that she can make the jump, and increase her search radius to account for a third Raptor jump."

"Thank you, sir. I'll send the word down."

**Planet Leonis, Minerva Air Force Base **

"She's going to get us all killed…" Wick whispered under his breath as he came out of the low crawl position into a small drainage ditch four hundred meters from Minerva Air Force Base's perimeter.

Scott didn't respond to the boy's sadistic comments as he peered through his binoculars. Minerva Air Force Base, a back water Raptor supply base that was so insignificant that even the Cylons decided not to nuke it. He'd been there once before on a training mission when he was forced to make an emergency landing, and hadn't been impressed. During that time, the place had six fully functioning Raptors, the rest were pieces of junk that had been phased out of service due years before. And their new fearless commander wanted them to bring her back a shining new Raptor.

"There's no movement along the line, so let's just get in there and get this over with." Scott pushed himself into a prone position so that he could see the rest of his squad. He held his hand up and flashed the sign for them to move into a wedge formation, and with the precision and expertise of regulars, the militiamen swiftly moved into the formation around him.

Waving his hand forward, the entire group started forward across the open field before them. Each of them had their heads on a swivel as they approached the tangled mess of a wire that was once a fence. He stuck his hand in the air signaling for them to stop as he scanned the area once again. It felt too easy, and if there was a functioning Raptor in this place like the Commander's scouts had told them, there should have been Cylons around.

Finally, he gave the signal for the group to move up again. They proceeded into the base, across the small landing strip, and towards the hangars. They halted once again, this time getting into a 360 degree defensive position, as McKnight pulled his binoculars out once again. He shifted his gaze from one hangar to the next, and finally came upon an opened hangar, and sitting in plain sight, was a Raptor. A little beat up, but for the most part it looked intact.

The perfect sight for a Cylon ambush. Scott whistled and a second later the radio operator dropped to one knee next to him. "This is Runner-1 to Home Base."

A second later, the wireless cracked with the controller's voice. "This is Home Base, go ahead Runner-1."

"We've got the Raptor in sight, but this is set up perfectly for a Cylon Ambush. Requesting permission to make a further recon of the surrounding area before we move in."

"That's a negative, Runner-1, Actual says that time is of the essence. She's saying to move in and grab it as quickly as possible."

"Frak." He muttered before clicking the wireless. "Wilco, Home Base we're heading in."

As the radio operator trotted away to his section of the circle, Wick kneeled in the man's place. "She's still sending us in right?"

"Just stop complaining so we can get this over with. Take two guys to that tower over to the east and give us some topside cover." Wick nodded without another word, took two men and sprinted from cover to cover until they reached the tower.

He whistled sharply so that the rest of the squad would look to him. Again, he flashed the wedge formation hand signal and they quickly formed up. It took them close to two minutes to cross the open area in front of the hangar. So far, they hadn't run into any contact, but Scott still had a sinking feeling in his stomach.

One hundred meters, that's all they needed and they could leave the frakking place. They only got a few more steps before the unmistakable sound of incoming ordnance whistled through the air. The first mortar round hit just in front of the formation, shredding one of the fighters with shrapnel. He was just about to call out to get the fallen man when the second and third mortars hit the ground around them.

"Cover!" He yelled over the roar of the mortars. "They've got the area zeroed!" The entire formation scattered to whatever cover that they could find. Scott dove into the cover of an overturned truck and looked back to see the damage of the mortars. Three corpses were lying in the open field, three more than they should have.

"Wick! Can you see the mortars?" He called frantically into the wireless as he dug down deeper to avoid being split open by one of the mortars.

The crackle of gunfire sounded first through the wireless. "Negative, but we can see a half dozen toasters heading right for your position. We'll try to slow them as much as we can."

"I'd appreciate that." He said with just a hint of sarcasm in his voice.

"What are you thinking, Scott?"

They didn't really have many options, either run away and be cut down by the Centurions or mortars, or continue on and take their chances with the Raptor. "We're cut off and these frakking mortars are hammering us to nothing. The only chance we've got it to grab that Raptor."

"You're frakking crazy."

"I know." Scott waved his hand over his head and pointed to the hangar where the Raptor still sat, telling the fighters that were out of ear shot to regroup at the hangar. He charged out of his cover during a short break in the mortar fire towards the Raptor.

The nine remaining fighters charged out as well, braving the returning fire of the Cylons. A mortar detonated just off to his side, knocking him off of his feet and into a van that was still parked in the area. After a few seconds of disorientation, he looked up to see one of the fighters grab his arm to help him up. A second mortar exploded near them, blowing fighter's leg off.

The fighter screamed as he looked down as his bloodied leg. There wasn't time to do anything about it now, so Scott grabbed the back of his assault pack and begun dragging him towards the hangar. Most of the squad had already reached the hangar and were taking cover near the Raptor.

Once he reached the relative safety of the hangar, Scott called for what was left of his squad to do what they could for the man he was dragging. From just a quick glance, he could tell that most of the squad didn't make it out of the shelling.

He shelved those thoughts and moved towards the Raptor. From the outside, it looked like it could make the short trip back to the base, and when he climbed inside, he found everything most intact. It would fly, their first spot of good luck all day.

He ordered the men aboard as he ran through the startup sequence. He keyed the wireless to Wick. "The Raptor will fly, Wick, what's the status on those Centurions?"

"They're hammering us up here. Dixon is dead and White's been shot in the chest. He won't make it if we don't get him back to base soon."

"Are you wounded?"

"Yeah, but it's not bad, just hurry up and get here." The rest of the squad was finally aboard the Raptor and were waiting for him to lift off. The hatch closed as the Raptor arced up swiftly and blew out of the hangar.

He could see the tower under heavy fire by four Centurions, peppering the entire area. Again, he popped the hatch open and drifted to towards the top of the tower. Almost as soon as he touched the side railing against the tower, two of his squad jumped out with a stretcher for the wounded fighter.

In less than a minute, the entire squad was aboard and they were flying away from Minerva Air Force Base. He sighed the first breath of relief since they had gotten in eye sight of the damned Air Base. They'd completed their mission, but had taken a heavy toll for it, a toll that could have been avoided with proper planning. He'd have a nice long chat with the Commander about that when they got back.

**Battlestar **_**Retribution**_** Planning Room**

"We launch a Viper assault across their perimeter to draw their Raiders away from their heavier ships. With their Raider forces fully engaged in the perimeter battle, it will allow us to slip several Raptors into their defensive lines via puddle jumps to board the array. The marines will storm the station, secure the intel we need, and get out before the Basestars come down on our Vipers." Commander Shard pushed several squadrons of Vipers onto the planning board in their designated attack points.

"Before? Who's to say the Cylons won't commit half of their Basestars to their perimeter defense?" Commander Harvard asked.

"Because most of their Basestars won't be present at the battle. We'll need yet another distraction. We'll need most, if not all of the fleet for this one. The fleet will jump en-masse at one of the known Cylon supply routes near the station, and pick a fight. We have no doubt that they will commit most, if not all, of their Basestars to defeating us here." Allyson continued with her briefing.

"And what happens if they do defeat us?" Harvard asked again.

"Then Helios is left without a defense fleet." Ward stepped up from back of the room up to the planning table. He slid the figures of the entire fleet into the representation of what would be the second combat zone onto the table. "We're putting all of our chips on the table with this one."

"It's a risk we're taking." Espino was hanging towards the back, and in her standard black duty uniform that all naval intelligence officers wore, she almost blended into the wall behind her.

"We are doing this then, sir?" Besant was the next to talk, obviously the ship commanders weren't exactly excited about the mission.

Ward nodded and let his eyes shift across the entire room, making sure to meet eyes with each individual commander. "Yes, we can't have the Cylon breathing down our backs any longer. We've got to bloody their noses enough so that they won't return for a long while."

"How will we deploy the Vipers into the combat zone then? And which ship gets stuck shorthanded in a major fleet engagement?" The commanders shifted their eyes from Harvard, who asked the question, back to the Admiral, each probably hoping they wouldn't be shorthanded.

"The _Orion's_ jump drives are the most efficient at this time, and despite the fact that she lacks any weapons, she is actually armored quiet well. As an added bonus, her lack of weapons leaves more room to pack Vipers onto her, which would be at least three additional squadrons by our estimates. As for the pilots, the _Retribution_ will send all of her veteran pilots to the _Orion_ along with several battle tested squadrons from around the fleet. Nugget pilots will be pressed through basic flight and dispersed throughout the fleet to supplement the numbers. Commander Shard will be transferred to the _Orion_ to take temporary command of the vessel."

Ward let his commanders look over the operation for a few more minutes. He knew it was risky, but since when had their plans not been risky? Nearly a month ago, they launched an all-out assault on a Cylon controlled shipyard, now they planned to take on the largest Cylon fleet they could find intentionally. Risky just seemed to be part of the agenda now. "Any questions?" He asked, and with no answer, Commander Shard tapped her and on the planning table.

"The op is planned to begin in three weeks time, so we have that long to ready our ships, and train the pilots. Dismissed."

**Battlestar **_**Oceanus**_** Air Space**

"You know this is insane, right?" Razor called through the wireless. They had just taken off from the deck of the _Selphia_ and were in full burn towards the _Oceanus_. The _Jupiter_-Class was just as the Admiral had described it, but in some ways worse. The rear section of the ship was almost completely stripped of its armor, but in several portions the broken battle plates jutted up above it, sending off an eerie vibe from the ship.

"Don't remind me, but we need to get back to the Battlegroup." He reminded him as he kept his eyes fixed on the image of the Oceanus.

Jacob sighed heavily into his wireless. "There has to be a better way than killing Colonials."

"Well, if all goes to plan, then we won't be killing anyone." Not really believing that he could talk down a rouge Battlestar by himself.

"Right, you think these guys are just going to stand down when two pilots from the _Retribution_ come rolling in?" Jacob called in his ever present sarcastic voice.

"Probably not, but we've got to try." They had slipped into the Oceanus' DRADIS array just then as it quickly lurched forward and spun about to launch Vipers.

"I know…" Falls said. "They've launched Vipers. Two of them bearing right down on top of us."

"I see them. At the first sign of trouble drop the cable and turn for the Fearless." James flipped the communications to an open channel that the Vipers would definitely hear. "Attention, Vipers, this is diplomatic shuttle 1655 of the Battlestar _Retribution_. We are requesting permission to land and speak to your commander."

A burst of static shot through the wireless before a scraggly voice crocked through the headset. "Unidentified craft, you are to stand down all weapon systems and follow us back to the Oceanus. Your ship is to be commandeered as per orders from Admiral Ashur."

"Admiral? Oceanus Vipers we've come to negotiate a truce between yourself and the Battlestar _Fearless_. We would also like to discuss an alliance between all Colonial forces including the Battlestar _Retribution_ and her Battlegroup against the Cylon threat. "

"We're not here for a truce. We're here to bring you aboard the Oceanus, if you won't come in one piece, we'll bring you back in many." The Viper pilot's voice crocked again.

"That sounded like a threat." Falls said, and a second later their course changed as the hostile Vipers increased their speed towards the unarmed shuttle.

"No shit, pop the cables and spool the FTLs. Once you're clear I'll turn and burn for the Selphia."

"Wilco, Joker. Good luck." Jacob cut the wireless and lurched upward away from the oncoming Vipers.

The cables popped from the backside of the shuttle, freeing Joker's Viper. He instantly hit the throttle, sending him soaring past Razor's shuttle towards the pair of Vipers. The _Oceanus_ pilots quickly shifted into an attack formation to compensate for the new threat.

"We're not here to fight. We just want to stop the fighting!" He knew trying to reason with the Oceanus pilots was probably futile, but he felt that he had to try.

As he thought, there wasn't a reply, but rather just the onrushing Vipers. "_Selphia_! Spool the FTLs! As soon as the shuttle is clear we're jumping!"

"Negative, Joker! We're jumping now! They're all over us! Six Assault Raptors just came out of nowhere. We've got to go now!" _Selphia's_ pilot screamed into the wireless.

Out of the corner of his eye he saw the freighter flash away as its FTL engaged. Without a target, the Raptors turned sharply and headed for the shuttle. Two missile streaked from the Raptors and slammed into the shuttle, blowing her engines out and sending it into a violent spin.

The _Oceanus_ Vipers were just about in range, a few more seconds and they'd be all over him. He desperately looked for a way around engaging the Vipers, but with the shuttle crippled and the _Selphia_ gone, he didn't see any other options open for him.

He fixed his sights on the first Viper and opened fire at maximum range, with little effect. The Viper quickly banked away and out of the long range shot with ease. Joker pushed his Viper quickly to port as both of the MKVIIs opened fire, he quickly realigned, squeezed the trigger and watched the first Viper form into a ball of fire and shrapnel. The second blew through the debris field of his wingman and let loose a missile.

James threw his Viper into a tight 180 degree turn and fired his thrusters away from the oncoming missile. He pulled a series of stomach twisting maneuvers to try and shake the missile, but to no anvil. The weapon continued to gain on him, and now, the Assault Raptors had fired a second salvo of missile to track him.

The engines wined in protest as he pushed them well past the redline. The Raptors hesitated a moment, not knowing whether to run or fight, but it didn't really matter now. If they fired and destroyed him, the missiles would just track the next available targets, which would be them. If they tried to run, at least he'd take a few of them with him.

They opted to try and run from the Viper. It was a futile gesture because both the MKVII and the missiles were more than a match in speed for the Raptors. Joker brought his fighter right through the tight formation the Raptors were sitting in. He didn't hazard a look back, but he heard his DRADIS beep several times as contacts disappeared from the scanners.

He rushed towards the Oceanus, who was now realizing the threats from the single Viper, and launched a dozen more of its alert Vipers. Again, it was too late, and he slipped by them with ease towards the unarmored back of the Oceanus. He pulled back on the stick shooting him far above the Oceanus, and then angled sharply down to give him a clear shot at the ventral armor of the Battlestar.

Joker squeezed the trigger, loosing both of his anti-ship missiles, and a second later, a pair of detonations ripped through the Battlestar, setting off several other chain reactions throughout its systems. He grinned back at the carnage, confident in the fact that the _Oceanus_ wouldn't be going anywhere for a while.

The Captain flipped his Viper about and pointed it towards the port flight tube. With the Vipers bearing down on them, he didn't really didn't have many options left. Since running wasn't an option, he decided that he might as well take as many of the bastards with him as he could.

The point defense guns flared up in front of him spitting flak all about him, punching dozens of holes in his Viper. A sharp searing pain lanced through his right leg as a piece of shrapnel tore through the muscles and ligaments. He risked a glance down to the wound to see a large piece of metal wedged just above his knee. Looking at it sent a second shot of searing pain up his leg. He grunted loudly to himself and brought his eyes back up to the storm of metal he was flying through.

Finally, the intense wall of flak died away as he passed into the hangar deck, and just in time. His rear engine pods detonated sending him sharply down towards the deck. He crashed heavily down onto the floor and skidded along it until the Viper smashed into the wall of the flight deck, causing the canopy to shatter above him. In his last seconds of consciousness, James felt a pair of men pulling him from the wreckage. _From one cell block to another._ He thought as he slipped out of consciousness.

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><p>I'd like to give credit of Vice Admiral Daniel Dax and the Battlestar <em>Fearless<em> to Just a Crazy-Man who has helped out a lot giving me ideas for the upcoming chapters. Again, please leave a review for me.


	6. Chapter 6: Battle of Helios

Here is Chapter 6 everyone. I apologize for taking so long, but when I was just about done (seriously I was 19 pages in on word) my computer crashed and I lost the whole thing, so I was forced to start over after taking a very long break. Also, this will most likely be the last Helios chapter for a while as I will be concentrating on my second story, Pinnacle, for a while so I can get it caught up in the timeline. As always, check out my profile for all the ship specs and a character list for most of the characters in both of my stories. Lastly, please leave a comment so I can know how I am doing. Anyway, enough of my excuses and annoucements here is Chapter 6 of Helios.

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><p><strong>Battlestar <strong>_**Oceanus**_

James stirred slightly in his cot as he woke up. A blinding overhead light pierced into his eyes as tried to crack them open. As he sat up on the cold metal table, he heard several men whispering somewhere behind him. It took a full two minutes for his eyes to adjust to the intense light in the room, and when they did he wished they hadn't.

He looked down to his leg to see that the piece of metal that had gashed it open was gone, but only a small bandage covered the wound, and that was soaked through with blood. Obviously, his captors didn't really care for his health, but that wasn't the worst. In the cell with him was a bloodied Jacob Falls. Signs of recent beatings covered his entire body and there was a long gash that started near his hairline on the right side of his face, and ended near his left eye brow.

The sound of the metal grinding on metal forced him to look away from his friend and to the door. Six marines entered the room in full BDUs with their rifles at the low-ready position and aimed slightly towards him. Two officers entered after them bearing the ranks of Admiral and Colonel.

"Commander Ashur I presume?" Joker crocked, his voice hoarse from not speaking in several days, breaking a long silence that filled the room.

"It's Admiral Ashur." The man beside Ashur said sharply as he stepped out from behind the shadow of the Admiral.

"Right, a self-appointed rank by a mad man." The words barely escaped his mouth before the butt of one of the marine's rifle slammed hard across his face. "Touchy I see." He said as soon as he spit the blood from his mouth.

"That wasn't just for the disrespect, you'll pay dearly for each of the lives you took aboard this ship."

"Wonderful, how much do I owe you?" James rubbed his jaw which was hurting worse now.

Ashur grit his teeth and began glaring at the Captain sitting before him. "Eight Raptor pilots from that stunt with the missiles, one Viper pilot, sixty-three crewmen that perished in the engineering decks and four valiant officers that were with them."

"That good, huh? I'm surprised I didn't bring this bucket down by myself."

"That good? You disrespect the Admiral, now you disrespect the dead? I'm going to make you pay." The commander pulled a small baton out from his belt and took a few steps toward him. He raised the baton above his head and brought it hard down on top of his wounded leg. The pain shot through him like a bolt of lightning, causing his muscles to tense making him curl into a half ball. Somehow, he kept from screaming even when the second hit came crashing down onto his leg again.

**Training Viper 235, Atmospheric Flight Training**

Ensign Haley Reeves fidgeted with the stick of her Viper MK V as she struggled to keep the aircraft level. Atmospheric flight had proven to be her worst aspect of flying since she had started her flight training aboard the Battlestar _Halo_ three weeks ago. She glanced out the side of her canopy and saw six other Training Viper MK Vs keeping a very loose formation with a pair of Instructor Viper MK VIIs nestled within the formation.

"Alright, nuggets, the enemy has just come into the edge of the DRADIS range. We've got about four minutes to contact make the final checks and prepare for contact."

Reeves looked over her instruments one more times to find that her systems were still green. Eight contacts approached them at increasing speed, and despite the fact that she couldn't visually see them due to the thick fog, she knew that they were out there. Soon, their instructors would peel away and the twelve trainees would simulate a dogfight.

"One minute to contact. Instructors pull out now." _Halo_ Control called out over the open wireless. As ordered, the four instructors from both sides pulled out into a high orbit to watch the battle unfold. Haley got her first eyes on the targets thirty seconds before they were in weapons range. She pulled back on the stick and drifted upwards to make an attempt so that she could attack from above.

When they were in range, she flipped about and arced swiftly downwards towards her enemies. Two of the enemy trainees quickly engaged her. Their simulated laser weapon systems flashed showing that they scored hits along her nose cone doing minor simulated damage. She returned fire, but missed wide to their left and banked away to avoid their fire.

"Helo-6 they've banked around behind you. Keep moving or their put a missile right up your ass."

"Wilco, Helo-1, I'm headed down to the ground." Haley took her Viper into a steep dive and got within two hundred meters of the ground before leveling out. The fog was still thick, but she was up high enough to avoid anything that might be in her flight path. The two Vipers followed her down and tracked her every movement as she struggled to keep one step ahead of them. Their training lasers flashed outside of her canopy, but failed to score any actual hits on her. They were, however, getting closer and would be all over her very soon.

In a last ditch effort to save herself, she pulled back on the stick and cut her engines, trying to force them to fly right by her. One Viper blew right past her, but the other saw what was coming and throttled back to try to keep her in his sights. She glanced over to the Viper that had over shot her prepared to engage, but lost sight of it through the thick fog. With the second Viper still trying to regain his sights on her, she took the moment and angled downwards towards the first.

All she could see was the blue hue of the Viper's engines, but that's all she needed to see. She was about to get her first kill. She locked onto the Viper and squeezed the trigger, but before her weapons could find their target, the Viper she was tracking exploded in front of her.

"What the frak!" She screamed into the wireless as she blew into falling debris of the Viper. Her Viper slammed into the debris, cracking her canopy and damaging her wing. "This is Helo-6! Stryker-3 just blew up!" At that moment her missile lock warning began blaring as the DRADIS showed a missile fire from the surface. "Missile lock!" Was all she had time to yell before she dove straight for the ground in an attempt to avoid the missile. The missile quickly tracked her and came up directly behind her at increasing speeds. "This is Helo-6! I'm ejecting!"

She ejected from her Viper a second before the missile slammed into it blowing the entire fighter into a million pieces. Her chute deployed a few seconds later and she watched as the third Viper corkscrew upwards towards for low orbit to escape the missile that was now tracking it. She never saw it that Viper made it away because a few second later she crashed into the ground, knocking the wind out of her and nearly knocking her unconscious.

For a few long minutes, she just laid on the frozen snow wondering what could have happened. Did they stray too close to Helios' automated defenses? No, they couldn't have they systems would have recognized their IFFs a friendly. Had the Cylons found them? If they had then why didn't the _Halo_ tell them of the attack? The questions swirled in her head, but she couldn't focus on any of them. She tried moving, but a sharp pain shot through her back and up to her head. She collapsed back down into the frozen snow.

It took her another five minutes before she could try and move again. She knew that they wouldn't be able to find her without a beacon active, so she reached down to her side to find her survival pack. She rolled over and realized for the first time that her faceplate was cracked. She hadn't wanted to take it off due to Helios' low temperature, but she couldn't afford to be blind with a potential enemy stalking her. The second she pulled her helmet off she regretted it. The freezing air swirled around her face making her shiver violently. She first dug into her survival pack and found a cold weather face mask and pulled it on. It wasn't as warm as her helmet, but it was better than nothing. She then dug into the pack and activated the emergency beacon. Her next order of business was trying to contact anyone that would be looking for her.

Her short range wireless was just that, short ranged. If they were in the right training zone, she would be nearly two hundred miles from the nearest outpost on Helios and another sixty miles from the actual Helios Base. Her only hope was that there was still a few lingering pilots around and she could make contact with one of them. After ten minutes of trying to raise someone on the wireless, she gave up. The likely hood that they trainees would have stayed in a hot combat zone was slim to none, and Ward wouldn't send in more pilots blindly while there was still threat. No, she was on her own until the storm blew over and Ward could send in some Recon Raptors.

After searching for a good half hour, Haley found a small embankment that would serve as a makeshift shelter until the storm blew over. She dug out a small hole in the embankment to get out of the icy winds. As she sat shivering in her small shelter, she looked out on the now raging blizzard around her as her mind kept replaying the earlier events. She wanted to cry, scream, anything, but she was too cold and too tired to do anything.

She was drifting in an out of a light sleep as she froze in her little hole. She didn't want to fall asleep in the fear that she might not wake back up. She was losing the battle. Her eyes would close for a second and she would jolt back awake, but quickly begin to drift back asleep. Her core temperature was dropping as her flight suit could only do so much against the freezing temperatures. Just as her eyes began to close again, she saw something in the distance move. Her eyes again shot open as she tried to focus through the pouring snow. It was gone. Was she seeing things now? Was she really that bad? Again something stirred in the distance. No, she definitely saw something out there. Was it a person? Yes! It was a figure moving closer and closer to her position. She wanted to call out to the person, but she was too weak and they would have no way to hear her over the cutting winds.

She got out of her small hole and stumbled a few meters away from the embankment towards the person. The lone figure still trudged through the winds towards her. She squinted through the winds at the figure, which now looked massive, and tried to make out who it could be. Her eyes tried to focus on it, but the more she did the less human it looked. She didn't think anything of it because this was her salvation, her way out of the this freezing hell hole. She stumbled closer to the figure, and when she was within twenty meters of it, her heart stopped and she froze. It couldn't be. The pilot locked eyes with the figure, or more accurately eye. Her hand dropped to her side for her sidearm as the machine raised its hand which held the standard machine pistol of a Centurion. The machine fired and she caught a round to the side and dropped to the ground. She would have screamed out in agony if she could have felt the gun shot, but her whole body was numb from the cold.

Her training quickly kicked in as she slipped an explosive round into the under-barrel of her pistol. She quickly leveled her sidearm and fired at the Centurion. The machine's body piece exploded in a brilliant flash of light and crumpled to the ground. Haley glanced down to her side and saw the blood seeping from the wound. She tried to move, but couldn't. _The Cylons are here… They're on Helios._ Were her last thoughts before slipping out of consciousness.

**Battlestar **_**Oceanus**_

James' body jolted with pain as he tried to sit up when the door behind him began opening. The 'Admiral' had only left him a few hours ago, and when he went, a pair of his damned marines had grabbed Jacob and pulled him from the cell off to somewhere else. This whole ordeal was becoming worse and worse with each passing hour.

Instead of Ashur and his goon squad, woman entered the cell who quickly dismissed her marine guard and closed the door behind her. Before she said anything, she kneeled down next to him and peeled the bandage back on his leg. He winced with pain as the blood from the bandage had stuck to the opened wound. She then pulled out a small pair of tweezers and began picking out the pieces of cloth that had stayed behind. After the woman finished cleaning the wound, she placed a fresh bandage onto his leg, and taped it down neatly, careful not to press too hard down on the wound.

"So when's the part when you start to beat me?"

"Not all of us a heartless bastards like Ashur." She said while she finished putting the dressing over his leg.

"Really, I find that hard to believe." He watched her pull the slightly bloody gloves off of her slender hands and toss them aside with the old dressing.

"It's the truth." She pushed a lock of her golden-red hair over her ear and dug into the small duffel that she brought with her. "There's a faction here that just wants us to rejoin Dax's fleet. We don't want to keep fighting like this."

The woman came out with a small syringe and once again kneeled by his wounded leg. "Then why don't you tell your precious Admiral Ashur?" He asked, but was cut short when she jammed the needle into his leg, making him cringe.

"We tried." She started like nothing had happened. "Chief Petty Officer Baird, our previous deck chief, went to the Admiral asking him to return to the fleet. Ashur had him lined up against the bulkhead and shot."

"What a nice guy you all decided to throw your pot in with."

"We didn't all have a chance."

"Yeah, well it doesn't really matter does it?" He tried shifting his leg a little, but despite the new dressing, the wound still felt like someone was digging a searing knife into his leg. "You're dead in the water, and Dax will be here eventually to blow all of our sorry asses out of the water."

"That's where you're wrong." The woman finished putting her things back into the duffle, and sat down on the side of the wall nearest to the door bringing her knees up to her chest.

"Oh really? How is that?"

"There's a reason Ashur chose this place to conduct repairs. There's only one safe entrance into this part of the nebula, and he's got all of his guns trained on that entrance."

He pushed himself off of the ground and tried to rotate so that he could get a better view of the woman, but e was still too weak from the recent beatings that he had taken. Instead, he opted to just slide across the floor into an awkward over the shoulder look. "Regardless, the _Fearless_ is more heavily armed than the _Oceanus_ is. She'll just take the hits and push on through to finish us off."

"That might be, but I know Ashur is expecting a fight, and despite the fact that he is a crazy bastard, he is still a tactical genius. I don't know if Dax can pull this off by himself."

"Then why don't you do something about it?" He could tell that his sarcasm was getting on her nerves, but he didn't care. Regardless of what she said, she was still part of the enemy.

"Because we can't do this alone." Her voice was almost pleading now, and he could even see a hint of it creep into her face.

"Do what?" He asked perhaps a little too harshly.

"Stop Ashur." The woman's face was deadly serious.

James almost laughed at the absurdity of what she was asking him. "Do you think I can help?"

"Yes, actually, I do." Her face didn't change a bit. _Frak, she's not kidding. _He thought.

He "And how could I possibly help you?"

Finally, her face broke and she smiled a bit. "The ones that are still loyal to Dax are too scared to move. No one is willing to plan, or make any sort of move."

"And you want me to do something about that?"

"We need a tactical leader, Captain." She said her smile growing slightly. "You're perfect for this. Everyone on this ship knows that your attack on the _Oceanus_ wasn't Dax's idea. You hit it in just the right spots to cripple it."

Joker shook his head, that was only partly right, but he didn't want to really take credit for any of it. "I fly Vipers, I don't plot mutinies, besides I'm not one of your loyalists. I'm just some unlucky frak that got caught up in all of this."

"If you ever want to leave this place you'll need to help us." Her face becoming deathly serious again.

Joker sighed. "I can't even trust you, this could just be some elaborate trick that Ashur's cooked up." He wouldn't put it past Ashur to do something along those lines.

She sighed and looked the man over for a brief second. "What do I need to get your trust?"

James locked eyes with her and the two stared each other down, both wondering if the other could be trusted. Finally, he said. "Ashur's plan to beat Dax."

She laughed at him. "I can't get you that."

It was just as he thought, but he figured he could ask. "Because your loyal to Ashur?" He said not hiding the venom in his voice.

Her face twisted into a scowl and she stared him down for a few long seconds. "No, because Ashur doesn't trust his junior officers with anything."

James' face turned into a wryly grin. "Paranoid bastard, isn't he?"

"Very." He could tell she wasn't happy about his last comment, but at this point he couldn't care less about her.

"Then get a message off to Dax."

"Saying what?"

"Saying to hold off an attack for now."

"That's it?"

"No, actually, do you have a pen and paper?"

"Here." She dug out a small pen and note pad and handed it to him. He quickly jotted down a message and handed it back to the officer.

STAND DOWN ATTACK… WORKING FROM THE INSIDE... LOYALISTS STILL ABOARD… OCEANUS CRIPPLED BUT STILL HAS FIGHT LEFT IN HER… STAND DOWN ATTACK…

"I thought you weren't a loyalist?" She asked after reading the message.

"I'm not, but that will keep Dax from blowing me out of the water for a while longer." James shifted his aching body into a more comfortable position on the cold floor.

She shook her head as she started to leave. "Right, you're looking out for yourself then?"

James easily shrugged off the intended insult. _Damn right I'm looking out for myself. _He thought, but didn't say. "And my wingman. Where did they take him?"

"He's been put into deep isolation." She replied as if it was nothing.

That wasn't what he wanted to hear, but at least he was still alive, and that was a spot of good news. "Alright well if you want me to help, start by getting that message off without Ashur finding it."

"I'll get it done. There are still loyalists within the Raptor Corps; they can send a message when they are out of range of the _Oceanus_."

"Good."

She started to leave again, but stopped when James called after her. "One more thing. What's your name?"

"Lieutenant Danni Hale, _Oceanus_ Operations Officer." Without waiting around for him to say anything, she turned and left the cell. James was a bit dumbfounded at the thought of one of Ashur's command staff stirring up a mutiny against him. If this was real, and not just a trick, then it would get messy real quick.

**Battlestar **_**Retribution**_

"What do you mean we lost three Vipers?" Ward stormed into the CIC after receiving the report of the recent action on Helios.

Commander Shard met him at the command table with the reports from the _Halo_. Sure enough, three Training Vipers had been shot down over an hour ago by unknown enemies. Three missiles, three kills. It was a damn shame. "Any idea what shot them down?"

"None. We've been going over the last wireless transmissions to try and get an idea of what happened out there, but from what we can see the Vipers were fired upon by a ground-based battery."

"How could there be a ground based battery on Helios that we don't know about?" Ward asked, becoming more and more frustrated as he listened to the reports.

"Well, sir, large portions of Helios haven't actually been flown over before." Lieutenant Dollins said.

"But we went over every inch of this damn planet with scanners before we even considered dropping our largest weapons research facility on it. I feel like this would have shown up then." Shard argued with her.

"Maybe, maybe not, sir. Powered down, and with the amount of snow and ice dropped on the planet an anti-air battery could be hidden quiet easily." Obviously the officer had anticipated the question.

"That still brings up the point of who put the battery there." Ward said, getting back to the more pressing matters at hand.

The Operations Officer considered the thought for a moment. "It could be pirates. They've strayed out this far before."

"If they were pirates why are they just now showing up?" Shard asked the question on all of their minds. Why was this unknown enemy just now showing up?

"Because we haven't been close enough to them before?" Dollins statement sounded more like a question as she glanced around the CIC to her superiors.

"We need to get a closer look. We should send some Raptors in."

Ward gave a quick shake of the head. He hated sitting around while an unknown enemy sat just two hundred mile from his main base of operations. "Not until that storm clears up."

The Petty Officer manning the communications called out to the Admiral. "Sir, we're picking up an emergency beacon from one of the downed Vipers. It belongs to Ensign Haley Reeves, call sign for the mission was Helo-6."

"We need to get in there and pick her up." Shard looked to the Admiral hoping that this would change his mind on the matter, but only after a second she knew that it wouldn't.

Ward again shook his head. "No, we still can't risk it. There might be more of those anti-air batteries, and we wouldn't be able to see them in that storm."

"Then what are we going to do?" The Commander asked.

Ward thought for a few seconds as he looked at the Fleet's tactical layout. The Gunstar _Archer_ was the closest ship capable of atmospheric entry to Helios, and was capable of supporting an orbital invasion. Ward almost laughed at the irony of an orbital invasion of his own planet. Their last bastion, Helios, thep planet that they had tried so hard to keep from the enemy was now under attack. "Bring the Fleet up to Condition One and set Helios Base to high alert. I want the _Archer_ to move into low orbit and have SAR Raptors fueled and ready to go sitting on the deck. Have their medical facilities ready to take on Ensign Reeves when they pick her up." He let the officers get to their work and looked back to his XO. "General McGrath is to have the _Nemesis_ and her marines ready to put boots on the ground within the hour."

She nodded and picked up a handset, but stopped before she sent out the order. "How many should they have ready?"

Ward's lip twisted as he thought. He couldn't take any chances with an enemy force on his home. "Put the whole division on standby."

She nodded. "Yes, sir."

**Battlestar Oceanus, Cell Block**

"It's done." Danni said as soon as the door was closed and they were alone.

James was a little taken aback by this. "What is?"

She smiled tightly at him and answered. "I've gotten the message off to Dax."

James blinked a little in disbelief. It might still be a trick of Ashur's, but if it was true then she might be serious about this. "Well that was more than I was planning on you getting done." He answered honestly.

"I told you that you could trust me."

The Captain shook his head. "Honestly, this doesn't mean anything, but I am more willing now. What about Ashur's plan?" He said turning away from that conversation before it got any worse. He could see that she obviously wasn't pleased by his honesty. Still, he didn't care. He was out for himself at this point. Maybe if he played along, he could find a way home.

"I don't yet." Just as he thought.

"I thought you were his operations officer?" He asked, prodding at her to see if she'd slip up and show some sign of deception.

She didn't, but she was certainly spilling her guts about Ashur's plans. "I am, but he's been pushing a lot of his officers aside that he doesn't fully trust. But what I do know is that he's been sending what's left of his Raptor force to the entrance of the nebula every day. They drift about like their moving something."

"Moving what?"

Danni shook her head. "I don't know, but it might have had something to do with the last raid he sent out."

Again, more tactical detail. _Maybe she's the real deal_. He thought. "What did he raid?"

"His raptors hit a shipment that was headed for the _Perseus_."

"Dax's Gunstar?"

"Yes, I think that they were going for more than just food and fuel."

"Why is that?"

"Because he sent all of his Raptors and one of the captured flatops."

"The pilots came back saying that the resistance was eight Vipers; that's more than any other shipment we've seen."

"Could you tell me anything about it? Or get me the tactical layout of the Perseus?"

"All I know is that it is a _Eos_-Class Gunstar. And I might be able to, but I can't just walk in with the blueprints of a warship and not make Ashur suspicious."

"Frak." James rubbed the stubble that was beginning to form on his chin for a few seconds. "Tell him that I'm willing to give you intel on the _Perseus'_ current situation."

"Do you actually know anything about the _Perseus_?" She asked, skeptical of his plans.

He shook his head. "No, but I'm sure I can tell him something he'd like to hear."

"Like what?" She asked.

James sighed. "Well, I'm not going to know until I see them."

"He'll want to be in here when you start talking." She was still not on board for the plan.

"I know, and that's fine. I just need to see those plans if I'm going to figure out what was headed out there, if anything." He was close to pleading.

She crossed her arms and finally gave in. "Fine, I'll get him in here."

**Planet Helios, About two-hundred and sixty miles from Helios Base**

Ensign Reeves dove behind cover just as the Centurions opened fire on her again. She grunted as the pain from her side wound shot through her body. The field dressing that she had slapped over the wound was oozing blood as her adrenaline spiked from the chase. She was lucky that she hadn't bled out from her wound earlier as it was a minor flesh wound, just grazing her side, but enough to cause her some serious pain.

Since that first Centurion had found her a few hours ago, she had been running from the metal bastards. She had been able to elude them for the most part, but she had nearly run into this patrol ten minutes earlier and was now fighting for her life. The Cylons had Centurions patrolling the entire area around what she had come to believe was a missile battery. The only stroke of good luck she had had was the fact that the storm was just now beginning to lift and she could see where she was going now.

The Centurions opened fire yet again and blew away chunks of ice that she had been using as cover. She cursed her luck as she fished into her pocket looking for more explosive rounds and found none. She had used the last of her four rounds trying to escape the last patrol she had run into. Without the explosive rounds, it was much more risky to fight a Centurion let alone a pair of them.

She peeked over her cover and saw the two machines steadily advancing on her position. She readied her side arm for one last ditch effort to kill the machines when her short range wireless squawked. "This is SAR Raptor 912. Is anyone reading?"

Reeves snatched up her wireless and quickly replied. "This is Ensign Haley Reeves to Raptor 912. The Cylons are here, I repeat the Cylons are here. I'm requesting immediate evac."

"Roger that, Ensign, we're picking up your signal we'll be there in t-minus twenty seconds." Reeves sighed in relief as she heard the Raptor's engines roar overhead and fire a missile directly into the approaching Centurions. The Raptor leveled out thirty meters in front of her and began its vertical decent to pick her up. In the distance, however, a missile plumed from the ground and streaked for the Raptor, slamming directly into it destroying it.

"Frak!"She screamed as she fell back down onto the icy ground. She watched as her saving grace crashed into the ground just as her Viper had done before. _What the hell were they up against?_

**Battlestar **_**Retribution, **_**Combat Information Center  
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"We just lost Raptor 912, Admiral." The CIC had turned into a mad house ever since the first reports had come in from the _Halo_.

"Gods damnit!" The Admiral yelled and slammed his fist down onto the command table. "The _Archer_ is authorized to engage and destroy any ground based weaponry it can find. Get General McGrath's marines groundside too. We're going to dig these facilities out of the ground."

"The last transmission from 912 was that Ensign Reeves was confirming Cylons on Helios."

"That's frakking impossible."

"I hope so, sir." "General McGrath acknowledges and will be launching his landers within the hour."

"Good and scramble Valkyrie squadron. I want them flying cover for the landers on this one. Put Lieutenant Fel as flight lead for this one."

"Yes, sir. I'll send them out now."

**Colonial Marine Lander 4-Bravo**

Private First Class Mitchell Hanes swayed with the movement of the massive lander as it detached from the Marine Assault Ship _Nemesis_. Despite the fact that he was strapped into his seat, every time they made a drop he felt like he was being thrown about the lander. One-hundred and six marines were crammed onto the massive lander, all strapped into their seats just like he was all along the walls of the ship. In the center of the cargo area was two Colonial Landrums, armor personnel carriers fitted with 20mm cannons atop them. The two beasts were bound to tear Cylons apart, but behind them, was the real beast.

In the rear of the lander, was a Harper-Class Main Battle Tank. The behemoth was 70 tons of armor plating and one 140mm cannon fitted to the turret. Two 105mm cannons were fitted just about the main gun to top off the impressive display of fire power. The Harper Tank was the heaviest tank ever fielded by the Colonial Military, and never before had one been destroyed in battle. It made him feel good that they had that amount of firepower on their side. What worried him, was the fact that the Admiral thought that they would actually need that much firepower in this fight.

Hanes pushed the thoughts away as the overhead PA called out that they were one-minute from touching down. The PFC quickly looked over his equipment one last time to check it out. He finished just as the PA called out the thirty second mark. The Private pressed the stock of his M249 LMG against his shoulder readying for the doors to open.

"Brace for impact!" The PA called out as the engines in the Lander whined in protest as the lumbering ship tried to pull up. The ship shuttered as an explosion ripped through the rear of the ship. Hanes' stomach dropped and twisted as the lander lost control and began spinning towards the ground. "Kryper, Kryper, Kryper! This is Marine Lander 4-Bravo we're going down!" The pilots yelled frantically into the wireless just seconds before the lander smashed into the ground. For the Private, everything went dark.

**Valkyrie Viper Squadron Escort **

"Break! Break! Break!" Lieutenant Fel called out as dozens of Raiders exploded from the surface of Helios. The Cylons had quickly overwhelmed the Colonials by surprise and sheer numbers. In fact, there was so many of the Cylons that one had smashed straight into one of the Colonial Landers forcing it to crash. Trix stole a glance down at the crash site and saw several marines trying to push their way out of the damaged ship.

She was broken from the sight when a pair of Raiders moved to engage her. The Raiders were the old-school style Raiders from the First Cylon War, and in her MK VII, they couldn't hold a candle to her. She quickly out maneuvered the obsolete fighters and slipped in behind them firing her cannons. The two Raiders disappeared behind a hail of tracer fire and formed into spinning clutters of metal chunks.

A quick glance down at her DRADIS confirmed that the remaining two Marine Landers had bugged out of the area and were heading for safer airspace. Without the support from the other two landers, the Marines on the ground would be overrun within a matter of time.

"Valkyries form up and push these bastards back. We've got to open a hole up for the other landers to reach the surface." She said into the wireless as she engaged a third Raider. The skies had turned into a violent melee in just a few short seconds when the Cylons had launched their Raiders, and targets were plentiful for the Valkyries. After finishing off her third Raider, she dipped down to the surface to see how the Marines were fairing. The situation looked worse than she thought.

Centurions were pouring out of the now open launch bay that the Raiders had come out of and were quickly surrounding the downed lander. She saw automatic weapons fire spray from lander indicating that there was still fight left in the marines.

**Colonial Marine Lander 4-Bravo Crash Site**

"Get the frak up, Hanes!" Gunnery Sergeant Peralta's voice cut through the thick cloud of confusion that covered the PFC's mind. The butt end of a M240 sucked the air out of his stomach as the Sergeant shoved the LMG his way. Hanes grabbed the machine gun and pulled his combat knife from his tactical vest, quickly cutting away the straps that had held him in place during the drop.

Dropping to the ground, Hanes scooped up his LMG and made for the only opening in the cargo bay which was a torn out section of the lander. Several round snapped above his head as the Centurions opened fire on their position. The Private dropped to the ground for cover, but the Sergeant grabbed the back end of his vest and picked him up. "Get on the line, Hanes! Return fire!"

The Private grunted as he dropped back down to the ground just outside the lander near the rest of the marines who were frantically trying to defend their position. In the distance, dozens of metal figures advanced on their position, and were spreading outwards to try and surround them. He took cover behind a small slab of metal that had broken off of the lander when it had crashed and pulled the charging handle on his M249 before letting a hellish barrage of fire go from the LMG. In the distance, one of the Centurions' chest piece sparked and exploded from his rounds. He tracked another target and opened fire, with the same results.

Despite the Marine's fire, the Centurions still advanced on the Marines position with increasing numbers. More than half of the company was still inside of the Lander either wounded or still struggling to get free of the ship. Lieutenant Vasquez turned lobbed a hand grenade from her dug in position about ten meters in front of Hanes. The grenade detonated a good fifteen meters in front of the Centurion's forward units, but the smoke and dust did give them a brief moment to gather themselves. She turned around and began shouting back to anyone in the Lander. "Someone get that frakking Harper out of the damned Lander!"

"They're working on it, ma'am!" A call came from the inside of the Lander. "One of the Landrums rolled over on top of it! I don't think it's going to be able to get out anytime soon." Hanes glanced back to the Lieutenant who had now turned all of his focus back to the raging firefight around them. Without that Harper, or the Landrums, they were fighting a losing battle, and everyone knew it. Hanes gritted his teeth, hefted his M249, and began firing again. If they were going down, they'd certainly take as many of the bastards with them as they could.

**Battlestar Oceanus**

"Tell me what you know of the _Perseus_ first." Ashur had gotten straight to the point when he entered the cell. He was with his usual goon squad of marines and his puppet of an XO with him. He looked the Colonel over again. He looked far too young to be a veteran officer in the CIC, he figured that the man had been a pilot because of the unsteadiness of his hands. It was stubble, as it was with all pilots, but if you knew what you were looking for, then it was very apparent. All pilots began to develop a small shakiness in their hands after enough hours were logged in an aircraft. All of those long ours gripping the vibrating flight stick and moving it ever so slightly without even thinking to keep the ship level wears on the muscles. Most pilots were able to deal with it without even thinking about it. Others have it a little worse. Their hands will spasm from time to time or start shaking for no reason. It just comes with being a pilot.

This man's were more distinct, suggesting that he had very recently been flying. Ashur probably had his last XO replaced by this man when they disagreed. It was just a thought for he couldn't be certain. Whoever this man was, his shakes were pretty bad. James' hands weren't too bad, though, nor were most of his squadron's now that he thought about it. It was most likely due to the fact that they were all still very young. His squadron. He hadn't thought about them since his capture, but now it was all he could think about. They probably hadn't the slightest frakking clue what had happened to him, but they would have looked for him. Megan would have looked for him. She didn't give up; she always fought until she couldn't anymore. That's why he had always liked her. And for the briefest moment, he missed her terribly. He didn't know why, it was just something that happened. He pushed the thoughts from his mind and went back to the task at hand.

"The Perseus is a _Eos_-Class Gunstar, one of the Colonial Fleet's first attempts at a stealth ship. It failed at that aspect, but exceled as an electronic warfare and reconnaissance vessel due to its ability to jam enemy DRADIS, which made it perfect for shadow operations. The _Perseus_ herself was one of the few ships that was actually commissioned, and, in fact, she was the last of her class to be built.

Ashur shook his head and began to open the cell door. "What you just told me is what any officer that has been aboard a major shipyard for more than a week could tell me. Tell me something I don't know."

"Her jamming devices are damaged and I could help you knock the whole ship out with a single shot. You could capture it, destroy it, I don't give a damn." James said quickly, as if trying to desperately save his skin.

This caught Ashur's attention and he smiled at the fake desperation in his voice. He left the door where it was. "How do I know you're not lying."

"Show me the blueprints and it'll all make perfect sense, but first, I want my wingman brought in here with me, and I want him to stop being tortured. He knows less than I do."

"I can't do that."

"Then I frakking take this intel to my grave."

"That could be arranged."

"Then do it you yourself you spineless frak."

Ashur struck James across the face and rose his hand to do it again when Danni stepped forward. "Admiral please," The room stopped and all eyes shifted to her, but her's drifted from James back to the Admiral. "He's got valuable intel that we need if we're going to beat the _Fearless_." The two held one another's gaze for a few moments before Ashur lowered his hand.

"Tell me what you know before I agree to anything."

"Fine." The blue prints were laid out before him and James immediately scanned over them quickly finding what he needed to know. "Look here." He pointed to a lateral power conduit that was running across the ventral section of the ship. "One of the reasons that the _Eos_-Class was phased out so quickly is due to the fact that she is vulnerable to the "golden bullet"."

"Explain."

"Without her jamming devices, she's basically just an underpowered anti-fighter escort. That allows you to get in close without taking too much damage. This lateral conduit is near the outer section of the ship, especially where her thin armor is. You sever this conduit, and she's dead in the water."

"How do you know this?"

"I participated in Operation: Sideswipe where we used a dozen of these ships to flush out the pirate strongholds. Towards the end, when the bastards started to get organized, they used this tactic to knock out our eyes and ears. Then run like hell. It kept them off of us for a long while."

"And you're saying that a tactic used over two years ago by pirates will still work?"

"Why not? It was too cost ineffective to relocate the power conduits, and it disrupted the jamming devices when they tried to just slap a plate of armor over it."

"Alright, that's good for now, your wingman will moved in here, but you're still paying for my men."

"Wouldn't have it any other way, commander."

**Valkyrie Viper Squadron, Helios Airspace**

"There's just too many of them!" The call was cut short as another Viper exploded under the combined fire of several Raiders. The fighting had degenerated into each dogfight becoming a fight for survival as the Vipers were pitted against 3 to 1 odds. She had had her squadron fall back to the _Archer_ for support, but the Gunstar's point defense guns could only do so much against the massive amounts of Raiders crashing down upon it. The Admiral had ordered the entire battlegroup to launch their alert Vipers to respond to the Raiders, but so far it was taking them longer to get organized and make an effective counterattack than she would like.

"Lieutenant, it looks like the Cylons have launched another squadron of Raiders, but it looks like they're making for high orbit." Fel whipped her Viper around and saw that the update was correct. They weren't making for the battle, but rather for orbit.

"Call it into the Admiral, we can't spare anyone that way." Fel said as she turned to engage yet another Raider.

"Got it, Lieutenant. Reinforcements are nine minutes out hold on."

"We'll hold _Archer_." She said confidently. She engaged the Raider and quickly outmaneuvered it and fired a short burst into its wing section, tearing it in half. The Raider spiraled out of control and crashed into the surface below. A pair of Vipers soared above her and shredded another pair of Raiders before a SAM fired a missile from the surface, catching one of the Vipers as it attempted to maneuver away.

The Valkyries could drop four Raiders each before they were overrun, but with the flood tactics that the Cylons were using, they'd run out of fighters long before the Cylons did. They were fighting a losing battle, and wouldn't be able to contain it until Ward's counter attack came.

In response to the SAM, the _Archer_ fired a salvo of missiles from her broadside and blanketed the general area that the SAM once occupied. With both the _Archer_ and the Vipers caught up in a furious battle over head, the marines had basically been cut off from any sort of air support. She knew that they too, were in danger of being overrun from the metal tide. If they didn't turn back the Cylons in the air, the marines wouldn't stand a chance.

**Battlestar **_**Retribution'**_

"Admiral Ward, sir." The tactical officer said and the Admiral turned away from his XO who had been giving him status updates from the imminent Viper counter attack. "The Raiders that are breaking for orbit appear to be heading for the _Hopeful_, sir."

"Frak!" The Admiral yelled. "How many?"

"Twenty-six Raiders, sir." Dollins cried, looking over her shoulder to the Admiral.

"We've only got eleven on station there." Ward muttered to himself more than anyone. "What's stationed there still?"

"The _Nexus, Orion, Icarus_, and _Reverent_, sir." Lieutenant Dollins answered.

"I want the _Icarus_ to disengage and intercept those Raiders before they tear the station apart." Ward's order had barely gotten off when the icon from the Icarus separated from the _Hopeful_. The _Icarus_ had broken her back badly during their first offensive mission against the Cylons and was just now back to being able to stand on her feet again. Despite the ship's recent repairs, however, the Icarus was in no condition to fight against the oncoming Raiders by herself. Her Vipers were no longer aboard, as there was a pressing need for pilots and they were dispersed throughout the fleet, leaving just the lone batteries of their ship and a squadron of reserve pilots between the Cylons and their most valuable asset. _This couldn't be a worse frakking situation._

**Fleet Repair Station **_**Hopeful**_**, Combat Information Center**

Rear Admiral Boward cursed his luck. The news had just come down that they only had the _Icarus_ and a reserve squadron to protect them sending the CIC into a panic. It was a controlled panic, however, which made him feel a bit better. Officers shouted back and forth while the enlisted personnel scurried about trying to keep up with their demands. If only the station's batteries hadn't been stripped years before then they might have stood a chance.

His request to Ward for additional support had been met with the assurance that the Battlestars _Thor_ and _Havoc_ were enroute to their position. They both knew, however that neither of the two vessels nor their Viper squadrons would reach them in time. They were, for all intents and purposes, on their own.

The _Orion_ had no weapons to speak of, and the Nexus and Reverent had no armor, never mind weaponry. Four Battlestars sat in his docking slips and yet only one of them had the capability of fighting back. He had ordered the _Orion_ to completely bug out of the combat zone nearly thirty-five minutes ago, but her lack of crew and newness of the ones she had, had cost them precious time leaving their docking slip. They were just now breaking the minimum safe distance for jumping.

He watched as the Raiders, nearly a minute out, banked towards the _Orion_ in an attempt to destroy the fleeing ship. The _Icarus_, just now reaching her intercept position began her enemy suppression barrage as the reserve Vipers formed a firing line in the Raider's path. Even with nearly half of the Raiders headed for the _Orion_, the Vipers were still out numbered two-to-one.

The Cylons opened up with a barrage of missiles on the _Orion_, but just as the missiles left their fighters, the _Orion_ disappeared as she jumped away. Not a moment too soon. Boward thought as he shifted his attention to the _Icarus_. The Raiders quickly blew past the Battlestar and her small Viper complement. Boward cursed again. The Raiders now had a clear opening to hit the _Hopeful_. The _Thor_ and _Havoc_ were still two minutes out. _Too long._ He thought and picked up the PA. _Only one thing to do now._ "All hands brace for impact."

**Colonial Marine Lander 4-Bravo, Crash Site**

The ground rattled as several missiles slammed into a small hill a few hundred meters off, kicking up a mushroom cloud of snow and ice. Hanes couldn't be bothered watching the impressive display of firepower when the Cylons were now under one hundred meters from them and considered too close for any sort of comfort. To make things worse, they were running low on ammunition as the Cylons kept on trudging forward regardless of how many they destroyed.

The private fired another short burst from his LMG and watched the arm fly off of one of the Centurions. It didn't slow the machine in the slightest, but it did weaken it for a pair of sharpshooters who had taken up position just above him to finish him off.

Down to his last few rounds, Hanes squeezed the trigger and finished off one last Centurion. He ditched the LMG and slipped his side arm out of its holster. Even at this range, his sidearm wouldn't do much good without the explosive rounds, which he had given up to another marine who had run out of ammo earlier. "Hanes! Get your ass back here! Now!"

Without hesitation, the PFC spun about and began running for the entrance to the Lander. Cylon rounds snapped and hissed around him as he entered the downed ship. Sergeant Peralta grabbed him as he entered and began leading him towards the back of the Lander. In the main assembly area dozens of wounded marines had been sprawled out as the corpsmen struggled to help the men. Hanes was forced to step over and around the dead and dying men as he followed the sergeant.

Once he reached the rear of the craft, he saw why the sergeant led him to the rear. The Harper had been freed from under the Landrum and was ready to go. "We need a gunner for the .50 on top, and you're it."

"Roger that, Sarge." Hanes scrambled atop the massive tank and slipped inside the turret. He'd never fired one of the .50 caliber machine guns that were atop the Harper, but he figured it couldn't be too hard to figure out. He pulled the charging handle and leveled the weapon to get the feel for it.

"You ready to go?" The driver peeked around the equipment in the Harper to Hanes, who simply nodded and a second later the Harper was moving. The massive bay doors for the lander were only partially open, but the Harper just smashed through the doors and kept on going. As soon as they cleared the doors, rounds began pinging off of the top of the tank. Immediately, he opened fire and cut down a pair of Centurions.

The twin 105mm cannons fired at a grouping of Cylons and blew the entire area away. The main gun then shifted to the Cylon's open hangar bay and fired. The opening exploded into a brilliant flash of metal and fire, causing a small cave in from the snow. It wouldn't take long for the Cylons to clear the opening, but it would buy them some time.

The Harper then began systematically decimating any resistance that they Cylons put up. The Centurions fell under his unrelenting fire and would disintegrate into nothing after being hit from one of the cannons. The marines had finally gained the upper hand and wouldn't stop until they had destroyed the Cylons completely.

**Battlestar Oceanus**

A few hours after the beatings had ended, James sat alone in his cell looking at his wounded friend. His body was still broken and bruised from his time with Ashur before isolation. Even though he hadn't been beaten while in isolation, the ordeal couldn't have been easy in the slightest being stuck in a cell all alone for so long. His wounds hadn't even been treated like James' had.

He balled his hands into fists in either anger, or guilt of being treated so well when his wingman was suffering. He was broken from his stupor when the door screeched open once again.

"Are you alright?" Danni had barely made it through the door before she asked the question. She moved quickly over to his side and began checking his leg and any other wounds he sustained from the night before.

Atlas nodded as he watched her check his dressings. Her hands moved over them such grace and care that it was soothing in its own to watch. "I'm fine, Danni, but I need you to check on Jacob. I don't know how long they been beating him in there."

She glanced over to the bruised Jacob and back to him several times before seemingly reluctantly getting up to help Jacob. He smiled as she moved away from him. "You know I'll still be here when you get back."

"I can't afford to lose you right now." She started off. "You're too valuable of an asset to us right now."

"So I'm just an asset?" He laughed, something he hadn't done probably since he'd left for the tylium hunting mission.

"You know what I mean." She blushed a little as she began working on Jacob's wounds. She seemed just as graceful and delicate working with his wingman as when she had been working with him. The man didn't stir at all when she checked over his wounds, whether the man was too tired or in too much pain to move or speak he didn't know. She seemed just as graceful and delicate working with his wingman as when she had been working with him.

For nearly a minute, he just watched as she worked on him, the person that was supposed to be his enemy, the operations officer of a mad man. "I know what he was after." He broke the long silence.

She looked up from her work and flipped a small lock of hair out of her eyes. "Really? Just from looking at the blueprints?"

James nodded. "Yes, the _Perseus_ was fitted with a pair of mine layers, a feature that was added onto a few of the _Eos_-Classes during Sideswipe. Dax probably had a few mines sent over to the _Perseus_ when Ashur grabbed them."

"Is the _Perseus_ not with the _Fearless_?" She peeled back a portion of dark red cloth from one of the open wounds along Jacob's torso, and replaced it with a fresh bandage.

He shook his head as he cringed a little at what looked like a horribly painful wound across Jacob's body. "I don't think so. Dax never mentioned it being with the fleet."

Danni taped down the first corner of the dressing, making sure to be gentle with the pilot's wounds. "Well this also brings up another question: how did Ashur know about the shipment?"

"Good point, can you figure it out?"

She finished with the final corner of the dressing and moved on to his legs. She slipped off his pants to reveal that they were covered in dark bluish-purple bruises, but there were no open wounds. The more he watched, the more he wanted Ashur to pay. "I'm not sure. If something as important as a contact within the fleet or a listening device of some sort is out there, it probably wouldn't be trusted with anyone aside from Ashur and the XO."

"Great, well you should still see what you can do about that. If anything try and sabotage the communications relay so that he can't get any more intel back from the _Fearless_." She pulled Jacob's pants back on and stood up from him, indicating that she had finished her work on him. Danni moved back over to James, checking him over slowly and carefully as if to not miss even a scratch.

She pulled back his jacket to reveal a small gash across his left peck. The woman brushed her fingers along the side of his wound examining it. She applied a warm balm to it, making it tingle and burn for a moment, but then sooth the pain away. "Again, no promises. That'll be hard to do, and it would alert Ashur to a defector within his ship."

James let her finish dressing the small gash before starting again. The woman always had a determination in her eyes, making his resolve to help the Loyal crewmen aboard the ship stronger with each passing moment. Without her, he would likely be dead by now. She gave him a reason to stay alive in this hell hole and to fight the man that imprisoned him. "It might, but I'd rather have his sights set inward rather than him working on the destruction of the _Fearless_."

"Good point." She said as she finished with him.

"Have we gotten confirmation that the _Fearless_ got our message?" James asked as she finished putting her medical supplies back into her bag.

"We haven't gotten any solid evidence yet, but we'll keep our eyes out." She said.

Just as she was making for the door, James stood up, something that caused unbearable pain to shoot through his body, and took her hand as gently as he could, but fell a little due to his injuries. She caught him under the arms, bringing them close together. He looked into her eyes, and smiled softly. She held his gaze for a moment, but broke it as she sat him down. "You'll reopen your wounds."

Danni went back over his body again, which he didn't protest. Her delicate touch was soothing and something he had become too accustomed to. "It's funny how every time I see you you're patching me up."

She let out a small laugh. "It's because Ashur keeps messing you up."

James returned the laugh and nodded. "I wonder what it would have been like if we'd met on different circumstances."

She looked up to him and their eyes met for a few moments. "I wonder…" Was all she said.

**Cylon Base, Planet Helios**

Danforth Ward stepped through the large open hanger bay that the Cylons had launched their vicious waves of Raiders out of. On each side of him, dozens of marines trotted to and from the Cylon base with their Non-Commissioned Officer barking orders to secure the area for the higher ranks. Ward, General McGrath, and Doctor Allen all stood just in the entrance, not exactly wanting to rush into the Cylon facility. Ward had spoken with the General before they went planet side about how secure the facility was, he assured him that they had knocked out the last pockets of resistance hours ago, but he still didn't feel exactly safe here. "Allen, I'm putting all of your projects on hold until you can analyze this place. Figure out what it is and where it came from."

Allen was completely taken aback by this. "All of the projects?"

"Yes, all of them. I want you to put as much of your man power into this as you can, doctor."

"But we're so close to completing Project: Nova." The Doctor protested, almost like a small child to a parent when he is told to do something he doesn't want to.

"I don't care; we can do without another bomb for a while, what I really need to know is if I need to plan a mass exodus of this planet." Allen clinched his teeth and balled his fists making his knuckles go white. Allen and Ward had been going round and round since the project had started, but in the end Ward was in command of the facility, and in turn, him.

"Of course, Admiral." Allen turned and walked away from the two men and went deeper into the facility without another word.

McGrath cleared his throat and the Admiral redirected his attention to the General. "What did you find down here so far?" Ward asked as they ventured down the ramp as well.

"It's all old First Cylon War Era technology." McGrath, a veteran of the First Cylon War, ran his hand along the freezing steel walls, brushing the frost that coated it.

"All of it?" Ward asked, shooting a sideways glance at marine.

His hand reached the end of the wall and he dropped his hand, the man was in deep thought, probably thinking of the brutal war nearly forty years ago. "Every inch."

"That's interesting." Was all the Admiral could bring himself to say.

McGrath was suddenly broken from his thoughts and looked to the Admiral, trying to change the subject he guessed. "I'd say so, sir. I heard the Cylons hit the _Hopeful_. What's the damage?"

And that was a subject he didn't want to speak about. The thought of the _Hopeful_ made his stomach churn. They had just secured the damn station and now she was nearly useless to them. "She's crippled to say the least. We're down to just the dry-dock to repair our ships. Thankfully, the _Icarus_ can finish her repairs on her own. The _Orion_ will be moved into dry-dock to continue her preparations."

"The Cylons do have a good sense of timing don't they?" The General said as they stepped into a massive expanding hangar, like something you'd see in a capital ship rather than a buried facility.

It wasn't funny, but Ward couldn't do much to stifle the laugh that escaped him. "They certainly do. This just means we've got to make do with what we've got."

**Battlestar **_**Oceanus**_** Cell Block**

"You talk about Sideswipe a lot." Danni remarked as she put new dressings over his wounds. The older cuts and bruises were beginning to heal nicely, but Ashur's most recent beatings had opened new wounds around the older ones. Jacob was still sleeping in the corner of the cell and had been slipping in and out of consciousness for the last few days.

"I know, it was a rough time there." He said, answering her question

"Was it? I never actually served out there, I was in an auxiliary unit for one of the hit-and-fade operations, but that was about it." She said as she finished cutting off the medical tape for his dressing.

James nodded, he knew of the hit-and-fade operations during the operation. _Argus_-Class Battlestars would slip in, hammer a pirate target and slip out before they knew what was happening. "Sideswipe was my first deployment. I graduated from the Institute right when tensions spiked in the rims. By the time I had finished flight school, the Troy Incident had already happened."

"And you were thrown in with the first wave?" James nodded solemnly, thinking back a few years to the hellish fighting.

"Yeah, I wasn't originally on the _Retribution_ either. I got stuck on the _Roma_, a little _Sentinel_-Class Gunstar."

Danni ruffled her brow as she heard the name _Roma_. "Wasn't the _Roma_ one of the ships present at the Troy Incident?"

Again, James nodded. "Yeah, she was there, and the only ship to actually survive the incident. Thank the frakking Gods I wasn't there for it."

"Did they ever say how they got so easily beaten? The government never did make an official statement." She finally finished up with his bandages and stood up and crossed the cell to check over the other man.

James watched her for a few seconds before retelling the events as he had heard them. "They said that they jumped straight into a trap. Four Gunstars on seventeen pirate vessels. They were lucky to even make it out alive."

"Yeah, you can say that again." She said as she removed the bloody dressings from Jacob. She had become quiet proficient at dressing wounds since they first arrived on the _Oceanus_ and was quickly working over Jacobs extensive wounds. She looked over at him for a brief second as if to tell him to continue.

"The pirates finally caught up to the _Roma_, though."

"Caught up?"

"We were looking for what we thought was supposed to be a small pirate outpost. Another easy mission supposedly. The _Roma_ went in with the newer Paladin-Class Gunstar _Lurker_. The pirates jumped us with two of their retrofitted freighters. We started slugging it out with them until they retreated into a small pocket of asteroids. The _Roma_ went in after them while the Lurker stayed behind to mop up the last of their fighters. I would have normally been with the _Roma_ as she entered the asteroids, but our Commander sent me to run down a few pirates who were trying to make a run for it. When the Roma entered the asteroids, they detonated."

"Detonated? What happened?" She stood up once again as she finished with Razor's wounds and took a seat on the cold floor next to James.

James smiled at her before continuing on with his story. "We didn't find out until later, but the bastards had gotten their hands on a few Cylon War relics, including three nuclear weapons. One of which was in that pocket of asteroids. From there, shit hit the fan. More pirates jumped in and the _Lurker_ found herself in a losing battle. That's when I first saw the _Retribution_. Ward jumped the _Retribution_ right into the center of their formation." James grinned thinking back to the destruction of the pirates' fleet. "They didn't even stand a chance against her. After that, I was attached to the _Retribution_ along with the rest of the _Roma's_ surviving pilots and have been with them ever since."

"That's quite a story. It sounds like you saw more combat than the old Cylon War Vets did."

"Probably not that much, but we saw our fair share." James said suddenly not wanting to talk about himself anymore. "Enough about my past, though, you seem to know everything about me. What about you? What's your story?"

"Nothing as flashy as yours. I was assigned to the Battlestar _Halifax_ first thing for two years and then transferred over to the _Oceanus_ for the rest of the time. I've had an easy career."

"Until now." He said and they both chuckled a bit.

"Yes, until now." She echoed as the laughed subsided.

A silence lingered between them for a few moments. James just looked at her for a long minute. It just surprised him that he would meet someone like this on such a Gods forsaken ship. Danni was clever, capable and willing to do the right thing, basically everything her commander was not. Before, he thought nothing of the crewmen and officers of the _Oceanus_ and killed dozens of them. Danni could have just as easily been one of those that was killed in the engineering sections. He shuttered at the thought.

"We've still had no word from Dax or the _Fearless_." Danni broke the silence and his gaze. James let his eyes drift back over to his wounded friend. A pang of regret shot through him as he still was unconscious on the cold metal floors.

"Regardless we need to be ready. What kind of firepower have you gathered?" He didn't take his eyes off his friend. If he were to die here, James would never forgive himself.

Danni noticed that the concern on James' face and took his hand. "Jacob is going to be fine. I've done all that I can for him. I promise you that nothing will happen to him." James kept his eyes on his broken body for a second longer before looking back to Danni. She smiled and squeezed his hand as he gave a nod of assurance to her. She took that as her cue to continue with the previous question. "We don't have much more than a few rifles and grenades, but we've got access to a handful of armories, but we can't risk getting into them until make our move."

James nodded his head slowly, trying to form some sort of plan in his mind. "Alright, well what's our manpower looking like?"

Danni shrugged, "Most of the crew is just too scared to move against Ashur, but not necessarily loyal to him. We can expect about half of the crew to not take sides. Between the other half it should be a pretty clean split."

"So you're telling me I have to work with a quarter of the crew?"

"Basically."

"Perfect." The Captain said. "Better get started then."

**Battlestar **_**Retribution**_

"Admiral, we're not giving up on him." Lieutenant Megan Fel stood alone in the center of the Admiral's office. She stood at parade rest as always she was nervous in front of the most powerful man left in the human race, but she wasn't going to leave there until she had gotten what she wanted.

"I know how you feel about Captain Atlas and Lieutenant Falls, but we can't keep sending Raptors out there, Lieutenant." The Admiral's tired eyes rose up from the after action reports he had received from the recent fighting on Helios.

Fel sighed. She couldn't let herself live without knowing she did all she could for him. "Let us make one more jump, sir. If we don't find him, then it will be over."

"It's doubtful that even if you found him that he would even be alive. It's been far too long." The two locked eyes for a long while. Megan thought that was it, and that she would never know what happened to James, but the Admiral sighed. "But I guess I owe you that much, considering what you did down on Helios over the past few days. You have one more jump, Lieutenant, and that's it."

Her face broke with a small smile. "Thank you, sir."

**Raptor 112, Search-and-Rescue Mission**

One last jump is all they had to find James' Raptor. Megan watched the bold red numbers countdown the time until their jump. They had expanded the jump range to its maximum, the farthest that Captain Atlas and Lieutenant Falls could have gone based on the fuel that they had carried with them.

The timer struck zero and her Raptor's jump drives kicked in, sending her to the designated coordinates. After the initial sweep with the scanners, it looked as if they were going to find nothing yet again. She sighed and continued onto the next sector, scanning the area and coming up with nothing again. Four sectors later, there was nothing. "Sorry, Lieutenant, it's doubtful that they would have come out this way." Her ECO, Lieutenant Junior Grade Dante Ambrose, said from his seat in the back of the Raptor.

"I know, but we've still got another sector to scan. Prep the scanners again." She said as she made a short puddle jump to the next area. Almost immediately the scanners lit up.

"Whoa, Ell-Tee, we've got a lot of debris out here. I'll see if I can clean this up a bit and pick out a Raptor."

"Do it, Lieutenant." She nudged the throttle forward a little and pushed forward into the small debris field. Almost immediately she recognized the long arm of a Cylon Basestar drifting in the center of the wreckage. It was filled with holes from what she could only assume were Colonial shells. Pieces of the shattered arm broke off and clumsily collided with one another.

She glanced back to Ambrose and caught him gawking at the wreckage from the back of the Raptor. "None of our boats have been out here. We didn't do this, sir. Did we?"

Fel's memory of the Fleet's engagements was hazy, but from the recon material her squadron had gotten for the SAR missions had stated that no one had been out here. This was uncharted territory. "No, I don't think we did."

"Was it _Peggy_? Or someone else?" The Ensign laughed a little and spoke more to himself than to her she thought. "Maybe the Cylons will start shooting at themselves. Wouldn't that be something?"

She didn't respond to the young Lieutenant and banked the Raptor up and over a larger piece of debris. "Ell-Tee, check it out just off to port." He stood from his seat and pointed out of forward view port. Despite the large amount of debris she saw what he was pointing at. The wreckage of a Colonial Raptor's engines. "Sorry, Ell-Tee, you know it might not be there's. It could be _Peggy's_." It seemed that the Junior Lieutenant had already decided that the _Pegasus_ was the culprit for the damage done here. Ever since Admiral Boward had brought back intel from the Cylon outpost the _Pegasus_ had become famous throughout the Fleet.

"We'll see, Dante, plot a jump back to Helios. We'll let the Admiral decide."

**Battlestar **_**Oceanus**_** Cell Block**

Two gunshots sounded from outside the cell, causing James to jerk sharply about despite the jolts of pain throughout his body. A second later, the massive cell door swung open and three armed men rushed in. The first in wore the bright yellow uniform of a jammer stuck his hand out to help James up.

"Captain Atlas, I'm Specialist Kyle Owens, we need to move fast." The Specialist explained as he shoved a CX4 in his hands and pulled him to the door.

James broke away and took a second to collect himself. His body was still aching all over from his most recent beatings. "Where's Danni?" He managed to ask.

"Ashur caught wind of what she was doing." James' heart skipped a beat when he heard the news. "He's got her and about ten others lined up to be flushed out of the flight tubes right now."

James stood up right and fingered the safety switch on his rifle. "Gather up whoever you can. We're taking this ship."

* * *

><p>There's Chapter 6 please leave a comment for me to let me know how you like the story. Also, keep an eye out for my other story, Pinnacle, which will be updated next.<p> 


	7. Chapter 7: Revolution

**Planet Leonis, Rebel Encampment **

Scott woke up with the sleep still heavy in his eyes, clouding the room he was in. He reached up and rubbed his eyes for a moment until he could see clearly once again. Sighing, he reached up a hand and placed it on the back of woman's head that was resting on his chest. He ran his hand through her now long auburn hair and then down her backside. The woman twitched a bit, but then shifted her body a bit closer to him. He decided to just lie in bed for a few long minutes with the woman, enjoying the warmth that the two of their naked bodies provided under the covers. Finally, he slid his arm out from underneath her and stood up from the small pallet bed that he had made in his little hut.

On the bed, Jessica stirred, curling herself into the rest of the blankets. Scott half smiled at his old ECO and turned away from her. The whole thing as just a hook-up, he told himself as he looked in the mirror at his scraggly beard and ruff hair. Back in the Fleet, someone would have had his ass, but no one cared here where they fought each day for their lives. And that was also why Jess was in his bed. It wasn't love or romance that drove them to each other's bed each night, just the thought that each day might be their last and they should have a little fun before they die.

He stretched out for a moment in front of the mirror before grabbing his clothing that hung on the small table near him. They'd long sense abandoned their duty blues that they had crashed in for a nice set of civies. He pulled his brown work pants and dropped down onto the bed to pull his heavy work boots when Jess woke up. He turned back to look at her as she struggled to get her long hair out of her face. "Morning you." He said and stood up after finishing with his last boot.

She stretched out on the bed and smiled back to him. "You're up early." He laughed and pulled a long sleeved black undershirt and grabbed his heavy winter coat. As of late, it had become increasingly cold, especially in the mountains, so they had scrambled to find enough winter clothing before the snow came to them. It wouldn't be more than two weeks, one of the older resistance members had told him, and we'll be up to our knees in snow. He wasn't really too excited about the prospect of that much snow, but they were prepared enough for it and so all they could do now was wait.

"Wick and Hoot were out last night hooking up some claymores on turnpike." He pulled back his sleeve to look at the old watch on his wrist. "They should back by now and I want to debrief them." The pilot sipped his heavy padded coat on and adjusted it so it felt comfortable on him.

She sat up straight in the bed and leaned her back on the wall, letting the blanket fall from her to expose her body. "The turnpike? I thought the ambush was to be set up on the highway. There's more traffic there."

Scott stepped one boot up onto the only chair in the room while and pulled his pant leg up while strapping a small combat knife to his calf. "There is, but hitting the highway would step up Cylon patrols over there and we got Davis and Holzer moving up some supplies through that area." Brushing down his pant leg, he dropped his leg back down to the floor and secured his holster to his right leg and pushed his standard issue sidearm into it before looking up to her.

She looked to be in deep thought and if he knew Jess, and he knew her too well, she was running over every scrap of information that he'd just supplied her. "Makes sense, but a roadside ambush might step up patrols everywhere."

The Lieutenant checked himself over one last time to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything and then stepped over to the bed. "That's why I got to debrief Wick and Hoot. I'll see where the placed the mines and after they go off I'll send a recon patrol across the area and see where their patrols are picking up in relation to the mines."

She nodded slowly again, and he knew that once she got out of bed, then she'd be in their Ops center for the rest of the day pouring over data and reports. "Sounds reasonable to me. I'll head to the center after I grab some breakfast."

Smiling, he leaned down and kissed her quickly. "Smells like Nan is making something good. Save some for me will you?" He called back to her as he ducked down to open the flap of his little hut.

"If there's bacon, no promises." She said and he stood up from the small opening into the fresh mountain air. Looking around the camp, he saw it was still relatively quiet as most of the inhabitants had yet to wake up, or were just staying in their hovels for a little bit of warmth. He could see Nan's cooking in the center of their camp and he waved to her and she returned it with a little smile before going back to her meal preparation.

Scott stepped up from the small step in front of the door, as he had ordered that each of the hovels be built below ground to keep their profiles small so that the Cylons would have a harder time finding them, and onto what they called "Main Street". It was nothing more than a worn down dirt path, but it was the path that ran directly through the center of the camp into their main dugout bunker that housed their Ops center, armory, and garage with four half-ton trucks and two "technicals" as they called them. It had taken forty men digging round the clock nearly a month to get the Dugout, their new nickname for the bunker, built. They still had some guys working on it from time to time, reinforcing it and making it into a fallback point if need be. It was his goal to eventually have tunnels that lead from the Dugout into various points in the mountain so that they could move quickly without being spotted. All in all, he liked his little camp much more than the Serta Arms factory that the rest of the resistance was holed up in.

It had been decided that the arms factory was too valuable of a position for the resistance fighters to be coming back to each time they hit a major Cylon target. If the toasters followed them back from one of those attacks, then they frag a thousand civies without much of a fight. So Scott had convinced Commander Oriol to give him a group of fighters to set up this base and move freely and hit targets without having to compromise the main base. That had only partial worked. Their fearless Commander still had her hands in each operation they made which drove him insane. He couldn't take it much longer. She'd gotten more of them killed in her short time as the CO than he had ever done when it was just him. It wasn't like him to hold grudges, but he couldn't help it this time.

As if on cue, he watched Hoot and Wick trudge up the side of the hill and onto the Main Street towards him. Hoot was carrying a heavier .50 sniper rifle that he had "liberated" from a Colonial Militia compound a month ago over his shoulders with both arms draped over it. It was widely accepted that he was among the better shots in his small unit here. Wick, with his tattered brown jacket that was in dire need of replacement, cradled his CX4 Storm under his left arm and held a map in his right that the two men were looking over. Even from this distance, Scott could see the two men's breath and how they were visibly shaking. It had no doubt been a long cold night as they set up the mines, but each time it seemed that the pair would rather spend their nights out causing havoc than sleeping cozy in their hovels.

When they drew closer, Wick looked up and stuffed the map into his pocket, flashing a grin at him. "Welcome back, gents. Have a fun night?"

Hoot pulled the rifle off his shoulders and looped it under one of his arms. "Probably not as fun as yours, but certainly more productive." His grin was a knowing one as he punched him in the arm and the three of them walked to the Dugout. "We got some news for you too." Suddenly, the pair veered off from the path and away from the Dugout to one of the LPOPs that they had set up on the perimeter. Hoot tapped Wick on the shoulder and he pulled the map back out. Spreading it out on the top of one of the hovels, Wick pointed to a series of Xs along the turnpike he had ordered the mines be placed. Hoot continued, "We spent most of the night watching a series of convoys moving up and down the turnpike. Don't know what they are or where they're going, but they're big."

This piqued his interest a bit. They really hadn't hit many big targets since they moved out from Serta. "How big are we talking?" He asked and the two men looked to each other.

Wick reached into his coat pocket and pulled a small book out that he used as a recorder. He flipped through the pages until he reached the one he was looking for. He looked it over for a moment longer as if to make sure he wasn't just imagining things before handing it to Scott. Wick let him read it over first before speaking. "Three of those passed last night, and if we've got the time interval down, then another convoy should be passing her in the next twenty minutes. We should be able to see the kill zone from Psy's OP."

Scott was still reading over their report. It said there was a pair of large transports being escorted by a column of Centurions ranging from twelve to fifteen. Anything with that much protection was certainly worth hitting. "Let's move then, I want to know they're going."

Nodding, Hoot and Wick led the way down a winding worn down pathway that the resistance used to get to their OP. It was a few kilometers from their main camp so it took them a good ten minute jog to get to small lookout point. The OP was really nothing more than a shadily built tree stand and a small dugout tent for the night watch to stay in. Scott had made it an SOP for all of their outer lying lookout points to have two men at least manning them at all times. Sometimes, between watches or when fighters were bored, there could be up to six men manning a post, but when they arrived they found only Psy wildling a small stick at the base of the ladder with his combat knife. When they approached, he looked up and reached for his UMP-45 submachine gun but stopped when he saw who it was. "Morning, Ell-Tee." He said while simply nodding to the two other fighters who stopped to regain their breath from the jog. "I didn't know you were coming up or I'd have put a pot of coffee on the cooker." The OPs were also forbidden to light fires, so if they wanted to cook anything or have a fire to warm their hands, they were forced to use tiny gas cookers that were notoriously underpowered. At the best of times, they would get food or beverages lukewarm and did nothing to warm ones hands. Still, it was better than drawing the attention of a squad of Centurions.

Panting, the Lieutenant walked up to the man and placed a hand on his shoulder while grabbing the binoculars from the stump of a tree near him. "That's alright, Psy, we just came to watch a little firework show." Looping the binocular's neck strap around him, he pointed up the stand. "Who is up top?"

Psy stood up facing the tree and whistled. A moment later, a boyish looking fighter poked his head out the opposite side of the stand. "Come on down, Adam." He called up to him and the boy disappeared for a moment longer before sliding down the little ladder.

Scott hadn't seen the boy before as he was probably one of the new recruits from Serta that had just rotated in. He tried to know each of the fighters under his command, but it was nearly impossible to do so at the rate that they would either be killed or rotated back to Serta. It took him a moment to look the boy over and realize he was just that. A boy. Adam couldn't have been older than sixteen with the acne still covering his broken out face and his little awkward smile. "Thanks, Adam. We're going up for a bit, and when those mines go off, send burst back to the Dugout and let them know we've hit the convoy."

Adam smiled and nodded. "Yes, sir! We can do that!" The boy seemed eager to please, which was a good thing, but it still unnerved him that he was so young. Just another frakked up thing about this little war.

He nodded and started climbing up the dangerously unstable ladder, making a mental note to get some building supplies sent to them on their next resupply from Serta. When the trio had made it to the stand, they all lied down onto the wooden floor and Hoot propped his sniper rifle up with his bipod, aiming it at the turnpike. The road itself wasn't more than four hundred meters off and was lined on each side with dense foliage. Thankfully, the tree they were in was high enough to get a view over it.

It was another ten minutes or so before Hoot tapped him on the shoulder to tell him to focus his attention to the east. The Cylon convoy was marching down the road with their two trucks lumbering slowly down the cracked pavement. Wick pulled the detonator out of his pocket and thumbed off the safety. Now that he could see the convoy, he realized how valuable it actually looked. The Centurions were marching in perfect parade ground unison in front of the pair of massive silver trucks. He quickly counted the machines and found that they had eighteen of the machines protecting the trucks.

Another minute passed before Wick quietly counted down so that he could prepare for the blast. "Five, four, three, two…" A second later, he squeezed the detonator and the mines blew in unison. Four bright balls of fire spit a terrible hail of searing hot shrapnel and death. Underneath the trucks, the ground seemed to blossom up and exploded in three separate places, two directly under the lead truck eviscerating it completely and the third catching the front end of the trailing truck, tearing it in half and capsizing it. Wick and Hoot laughed aloud and highfived over him. "We forgot to tell you we packed a little extra in there. Pipe bombs to be exact." So that was what had blown the trucks up.

Scott surveyed the damage and was satisfied with what they had accomplished. He handed the binos off to Wick to show him his handiwork who gladly accepted them. After a second, however, his smiled turned into a look of utter disbelief. "Oh my Gods." He croaked before dropping his jaw.

"What?" Scott asked and strained his eyes to look at what could have him so shocked. Wick did nothing and his body started shaking slightly. Without waiting for a reply, he snatched the binos out of his hands and immediately saw what he was looking at. His heart sank the moment he looked at the rear truck. A blond haired woman staggered out of the truck, her stomach split open by a piece of shrapnel by the looks of it, and collapsed to the ground face first. As he continued to watch, he saw more people stagger out, most wounded fatally by the looks of it. He dropped the binos onto the ground and his stomach turned. "Gods, there was people in there."

**Battlestar _Retribution_, War Room**

It was too much too fast. Admiral Ward stood up from his chair and took a quick walk around the room. He and his command staff had been in the War room for the last six hours trying to shuffle through the massive amounts of information that General Castorious had been sending them from Cylon base that they had run into down on Helios. It had caught them all off guard when the action stations had been sounded the day before. The only solid piece of information that they had gotten from the ground teams was even more of a shocker than the Cylons actually being on Helios. The base was found to actually be a downed Cylon Basestar from the First Cylon War, and the years past had covered the ship with a thick layer of ice and snow. How and why it got there was still a mystery.

"Admiral, Lieutenant Fel has sent her report up." Petty Officer Martel said as she entered the room. He was about to dismiss it when one of the words on the report caught his eye. _PEGASUS_. The Gods were playing a joke on him right now. Another rumor about the Pegasus going around the fleet was the last thing he wanted right now.

"Thank you, Katie." He took the file and moved to the far end of the room away from the others. Before starting on the file, he glanced up at the wall at one of his favorite pictures on the ship. It was an artistic depiction of the Battlestar _Orion_, the very one that had been recovered from the Aquarion Shipyards and his old flag during the famous Battle of Leonis. She was rolled to port firing away with her main guns at a pair of Cylon ships that were looming in the distance. A trio of Vipers were zipping across bottom of the picture engaging a flight of Raiders. This was of course all fiction. Nothing at all had gone this well during those nine days. Just as it was right now, everything was disarray and information was sketchy at best, and when they thought they had gotten everything figured out the Cylons would throw them for another loop. _I guess war really never does change._

The report wasn't all too long, it just had the best worst news he could have hoped for. They believed that Captain Atlas and Lieutenant Falls were alive, which was a good thing, but if the _Pegasus_ had them then why hadn't they made contact with him? Joker was a good pilot and an even better officer if he hadn't given Cain their position, then there had to be a good reason. Ward stretched his back as it was sore from sitting for so long and then tried to massage out his lower back before turning around. "Lieutenant ****, send for Commander Espino, I have a mission for her." He nodded and then moved to phone on the wall to make the call up. There wasn't much of a lead to go on, but if someone could track down the _Pegasus_, then Espino would be the one.

It was just another perk of having the most advanced stealth Battlestar in the entire Fleet under your command. The older _Argus_-Class Battlestars were long outdated and in dire need of replacement. When the _Nyx_ had been brought under his command, he figured there was more of her class but soon realized that the _Nyx_ itself was one of the projects for the science teams to work on. They'd finally worked out the final kinks of the ship only a few months before the attacks and had sent the plans back to Pinnacle station to what he could only assume was to build more of the shadowy ships. If any more had been built before the Fall, then he didn't know of it.

An hour later, Commander Espino came through the door to the War Room looking sharp in her black intelligence uniform with her dark black hair pulled back into the sock bun, the hair style most women in uniform tended to prefer. The golden pins on her jacket stuck out like stars against the void, three of them in total. First were the standard senior flight wings from her time as a pilot, and next to that was her Stealthstar Qualification Badge and nestled underneath those pins was the Shadow Flotilla insignia. The Shadow Flotilla was a dedicated stealth unit, consisting of six _Argus_-Class Stealth Battlestars, and Commander Espino was on track to take command of the unit once the _Nyx_-Class was brought into active duty. His shoulder always felt lighter when she was around him for he spent his entire career in the CIC as a duty officer. As a duty officer, one would receive fewer commendations as the Viper and Raptor jocks simply because of the fact that the pilots were the heroes and rest of them were just support roles. Sometimes this caused a little bad blood between the two, but for the most part it worked.

"Commander." Ward said when he saw her. "How are you?" They spent a few minutes making small talk before Ward got down to business. She listened vigilantly as Ward recapped the events of the Captain's mission and his missing before going onto Lieutenant Fel's last rescue attempt.

She sat looking over the material that he had come up with for her before she said anything. "You want me to hunt down the _Pegasus_?" She asked finally.

"I want you to go looking for my pilots." Ward corrected her. "I'm not fully convinced that it was the _Pegasus_ that grabbed our men, and if it was I want you to figure out why they haven't made contact with us."

Espino pursed her lips with her long slender fingers for a moment as she thought. Always the thinker, he thought to himself. It was probably why she made such an effective intelligence officer. "Do you think that Cain is holding them against their will?" She finally asked.

Ward shrugged and wanted to tell her that he wouldn't put it past Cain to do so, but he held his tounge. "I'm not sure, but there has to be a reason for them not reporting in."

"They could be dead." She stated the obvious and most logical answer, as they two pilots had been missing for so long, but he didn't want to accept defeat. If there was a chance that they were still alive, then he'd continue this lead.

Nodding in agreement, he replied. "They could be, but I'd rather hold out hope for their survival."

The Commander raised her eyebrows and looked away. "Of course, sir. So you want me and my crew going on a search for a ghost ship and two pilots that have been missing for several weeks?" Her tone was sarcastic and disapproving.

"Yes, it sounds like a long shot, but I need something to boost morale after recent events."

She shook her head, not understanding why she should risk her ship for a pair of pilots. Ward was losing his edge on the argument. "We won, sir, why do we need a morale boost?"

The Admiral had had enough with the Commander. She was a good officer, but she didn't know how to hold her tongue and follow orders sometimes. "We found Cylons on Helios, our patrols are still too scared to move in fear of the Cylon beacons, and now the _Hopeful_, the key to our success at Cylon base, has been crippled. That's why, and if finding a couple of pilots can boost our morale, then I need you to do it."

Espino just gritted her teeth, still not liking it at all, but she knew that he was right. Morale had plummeted in the last few weeks, and not even defeating the Cylons on Helios could fix that. "I can do that, sir." She grudgingly accepted.

Satisfied, Ward's voice went back to being soft and friendly. "Good, you jump in six hours to the wreckage that Lieutenant Fel found and begin your search from there. Do what you have to, but I need you to be back over Helios before our assault starts in three weeks."

She nodded and stood from her chair. "I'll get it done." She snapped a lazy salute and walked out of the room. She might be low on discipline, but she was one hell of an intel officer. For that, he'd put up with her for a while longer.

**Battlestar _Oceanus_ **

"How many did you get?" James asked the rebel leaders that had assembled with him in one of the _Oceanus_' weapons lockers. There were three men before him, Specialist Kyle Owens, the one that had sprung him from his cell, was among the leaders. Apparently rank had nothing to do with the rebel's leadership. Along with the jammer, was a Junior Lieutenant Royce Cullen, the _Oceanus_' Landing Signal's Officer, and Staff Sergeant Carson Willow of the _Oceanus_' Marine Detachment. Immediately after leaving the cellblock, the rebels had taken James and a barely conscious Jacob away from the area and closer to the starboard flight pod where Ashur was preparing to flush several of the rebels out of the flight tubes as an example. The number of prisoners hadn't been confirmed as of yet, but they knew there was at least ten, including Danni Hale, the real backbone of the resistance leadership on the _Oceanus_.

The Staff Sergeant cleared his throat with a small cough before answering James. "Here in the weapons locker we've got nine marines and twenty-one crewmen." He gestured back to the rear of the large locker. The rebels were arming themselves with rifles, shotguns, SMGs and grenades. It was all so odd to him. These people out here, the _Fearless_ included, clearly had a different set of worries than the _Retribution_ and her Fleet. He didn't like helping wage a war between two human factions, especially during the apocalypse, but right now he really didn't have a choice. It was either that, or rot in a jail cell for Gods know how long.

The Captain sighed and rubbed his temples. He was still sore for the punishment that Ashur had forced him to endure over his time on the ship. "And what about Ashur's strength?"

The three leaders looked to each other for a moment and finally the Staff Sergeant shook his head. They obviously didn't have a clue. "We can't say, but we know they've got to have at least six on the execution squad. As for the others, it's hard to say." Well these three were going to be a wealth of information.

James thought for a moment on what their options were. He was in no way trained to lead troops in combat on the ground or upon a ship; that's what marines were for. However, the idea of it all seemed simple enough. Capture the critical systems and you've got the rest of the ship in a vice grip. "Alright here is what we're going to do. Staff Sergeant you're going to take your marines and head for the CIC. It should be lightly guarded without Ashur there, and most likely the Colonel will be there. If we can get him, then that'll give us a leg up in this fight." James looked over to the Specialist. "Specialist, I'll need a distraction when we reach the deck. If we all go in guns blazing, Ashur will just blow them all away without giving it a second thought." He pondered his options there as well. With a few deck goons he could certainly make a mess of the deck without showing a preemptively giving away his assault. "Take a couple of your knuckle draggers and make some serious noise for us. When he's not looking we'll open up."

Last thing he had to do was take the engineering sections. If Ashur still had those decks, then he could still scuttle the ship if he feared it was falling to the rebels. "Lieutenant Cullen, take whomever you can find and capture engineering. It's vital that Ashur doesn't get those decks. Understood?" The Junior Lieutenant nodded slowly without saying a word.

Then that was that, they were ready to go. "Everyone know what they're doing?" They all confirmed his orders and repeated them back. It was odd to be in command not in the seat of a Viper, but he somewhat liked it. What he really yearned for was to get back to his squadron so that he could fly again. "Then let's get moving. We don't have long before they blow the airlocks."

James stood from his crouched position and started back into the weapons locker. A few of the rebels gave him sideways glances, probably not trusting him fully or were worried about following his lead, but none of them said anything. He came to a rack of weapons and ran his hand down the length of it. Right then, it hit him that he had no idea what weapons he should bring. The only times he'd fired a weapon was during training and that was rarely something other than the standard issue sidearm.

A hand clasped his shoulder and reached out to take one of the P90s in the rack. It was shoved heavily into his arms before the figure stepped past to lean heavily on the rack. "Try this, plenty of ammo for you to spray around. You and me both know you can't shoot for shit." Jacob Falls held his side as he grinned at him. He looked absolutely awful. Bandages covered his head and body from where Ashur had beaten him mercilessly.

James reached in and took several of the fully loaded magazines and stuffed them into a tactical vest near him. "You look like hell. You're not planning on sitting this one out though are you?" Jacob grabbed a CX4 Storm and a vest as well to begin loading up. He was a much better shot than James and he knew it.

"You think I'd pass up an opportunity to put a bullet in that Colonel's head?" He was serious too, even through the smile he had, James could tell that he would kill the man.

"I hoped you say that. We got to move though." The two pilots had been thrown onto a foreign and hostile ship, and were about to start a war. Just another day in frakking Fleet.

**Patrol Frigate _Horizon_**

"Jump complete we're beginning our scans now." The CIC personel worked like a fine tuned machine in hunting down the beacons. Jump, scan, shoot, repeat. It's all they seemed to do these days. "Scan complete. We've got one beacon on the DRADIS time to target is two minutes." Talvert just nodded to his officers for approval. He had ceased to care around their fortieth jump, but his crew didn't mind. They were all stuck in this mind numbing routine. The two minutes slid past and the _Horizon_ fired one of her long range missiles destroying the small beacon.

"Stay on station for nine more minutes and then jump to the safe zone." Talvert ordered as he watched the debris of the beacon float away in all directions. It was now standard operating procedure to see how quickly it would take the Cylons to respond to a destroyed beacon. They were beginning to get slower and slower, but they always did respond.

"Aye, sir." The officer called and thus the wait began. Nine minutes ticked by as the CIC crew silently worked at their stations. No Cylons appeared. The _Horizon's_ crew was no doubt praying that they wouldn't show up. To show that they had finally gotten the better of the Cylons and worn out the machines.

Maybe they won't come after them this time after all. Talvert thought to himself, but as if on cue, the DRADIS chimed with a new contact. A collective sigh went out throughout the CIC, they'd all wanted this small victory, but it wasn't this time. Next time. He thought.

"Major, it's a single Raider."

"What?"

"Yes, sir. One Raider bearing right down on top of us."

"Arm point defense weapons and prepare to fire."

"Aye, sir."

The Raider suddenly veered off as if it realized the odds that were stacked against it. The point defense guns still tracked and prepared to fire, but the Raider dropped a weapon just before the _Horizon's_ guns fired. The weapon streaked through the dark space so fast that the _Horizon's_ guns couldn't track it. "Frak, all hands brace for impact!" The Major called through the intercom, but the shockwave never came. The weapon detonated, but caused no physical harm to the vessel.

"Multiple DRADIS contacts! FTL is non-responsive!" Reports began firing from all sides of the CIC as he klaxon was blaring. Talvert strained his ears to try and sort out the vital information from the chaos within the compact room. "Sir, I'm picking up twenty-three Raiders and three Heavies bearing down on us."

"Launch the Vipers and bring the point defense systems online. Get the snips down in engineering working on figuring out what is wrong with the FTL."

"The Vipers will be out gunned four-to-one. They'll be torn to shreds."

"Then tell them to stay close and behind our triple-A . Any stragglers that break through are all theirs." "Send out a general distress signal. We're too far from Helios for them to help, but one of the pickets might be close enough to support us."

"Krypter, krypter, krypter. Any Colonial vessels in range, this is the Patrol Frigate _Horizon_ request immediate support we've been ambushed by a sizeable Cylon force and require assistance."

Raiders are coming into range, sir."

"All batteries open fire!" The Patrol Frigate's guns fired throwing up a small flak cloud to deter the oncoming Raiders. The first few flew directly into the shrapnel and were torn to shreds. Several Raiders veered off and maneuvered around the fire. Talvert quickly ordered anti-fighter missiles to be fired. A pair of missiles plumbed from the front of the ship and slammed into the oncoming Raiders. THe Vipers quickly engaged the remainder and were caught in a tight dogfight.

The Heavies punched straight through the flak field, their thick armor taking the small fire like it was nothing. "Frak! Track those damned heavies and hit them with some missiles. That ought to put them down!" However, before the missiles could be fired, the heavies launched a payload of their own. The missiles slammed into the side of the frigate and tore through her armor, venting several decks and causing the ship to spin uncontrollably.

"We've lost all propulsion. Weapons can't track now, sir." Talvert cursed his luck and looked to the DRADIS. Two of their four precious Vipers had been destroyed, and without the flak to cover them, the remaining Raiders would be all over them in a matter of seconds. It looked like this was the end for them. "Raiders are launching another volley, Major, we can't take another hit."

There was nothing that they could do now aside from pray that they survived long enough for a Colonial vessel to support them. At that moment, when his entire ship and crew's life were at stake, he could only think of one thing, the promise that he would be breaking. He could hear her voice ringing in her ear clear as day. "Fine, but I want you there in two months." She had said to him.

"I will be, I promise. Nothing in the worlds could stop me from being there." He told her and had kissed her. I guess I'll be breaking that promise now.

As quickly as he could, he snatched up the intercom. "All hands abandon ship! Abandon ship! I say aga…" The Cylon missiles crashed into the side of the ship before he could finish his order. He was brutally thrown across the CIC under the force of the impact and crashed into the bulkhead. His head became fuzzy and the last thing he thought heard before the blackness consumed him was his XO. "Do it now!"

"Out of the way!" Megan called as she rounded a corner and quickly came upon a pair of crewmen on their way to the hangar deck. They both quickly stepped aside to allow her to run past them before continuing on. Running was her favorite way to clear her head, normally she would prefer to be able to run somewhere more scenic, but in their current place, the inside of a Battlestar would have to do.

**Planet Leonis, Listening Post/ Outpost Three overlooking turnpike ambush area. **

Scott's heart sank as he watched more people stagger from the trailing truck. Why were there people aboard those trucks? Were they prison transports? Maybe it wasn't at all a loss. Maybe those were Cylon collaborators. He wouldn't know until he got down there and found out. "Hoot, give us an over watch. Pick off any remaining Centurions on our approach and keep an eye on the road for reinforcements." The sniper nodded and peered through his scope before firing one of the heavy 50 caliber rounds at a Centurion. Not even a machine designed to withstand gunfire could stop one of those big bastards from getting through.

The Lieutenant slid down the ladder, followed closely by Wick, and made his way to the shortwave communication unit the OP had. He pushed Adam aside with ease and took up the wireless. "Dugout, this is Actual, I need six fighters at OP 3 now with medical kits. We might have wounded incoming." He didn't wait for the acknowledgement, but rather dropped the handset and started towards the turnpike. He stopped to stoop into the small tent which had all the standard medical supplies. He pulled a collapsible stretcher from it and thrust it into the boy's hands. "Psy, Adam you're with us. Keep your eyes up and heads on a swivel." Without another word, the four set off at a run towards the turnpike.

It took them no time at all to reach the edge of the road and the four of them kneeled nearby behind a grouping of trees. Pulling out his sidearm strapped to his leg, he slid an explosive round into the under barrel in case they ran into any Centurions. It was notoriously hard to drop one of the toasters if you were anywhere but close range, but the explosive round tended to do the trick quite well if you hit them in the right place.

Motioning the fighters forward, Scott stepped out of the tree line and onto the road. He felt uncomfortably exposed, but the trucks and debris would give them some cover if the shooting started. Besides, they had Hoot on over watch keeping an eye out for any hostiles. Every now and again, there was a crack from his sniper rifle signifying that there was still Centurions still around. They pressed on nonetheless, to search the trailing truck for survivors. They stacked up on the jagged torn open edge of the truck and prepared to enter it. Scott flashed a silent countdown on hand before slipping into the truck. He was hit instantly with the rank stench of blood, and nearly slipped on it as the slick crimson liquid was everywhere. He covered his mouth and nose in an attempt to save himself from the smell before continuing on. He turned to Adam whose face was pale white as if he were about to empty his breakfast all over the ground. "Stay outside and watch for any threats." He boy nodded, more than happy to not have to be in that vile place.

Scott stepped over a corpse and continued inwards. Most of the faces were blackened from the blast or disfigured from the shrapnel that was thrown around, but even then as he looked around he saw a resemblance between many of the people. Families? Twins? It was odd but he pressed on. As if he was reading minds, Wick broke the silence that had settled inside the truck. "They all look the same." Scott again stepped over a pair of corpses of identical blond women and shook his head. "Every frakking one of them. The men all look like each other just like the women do. There's no frakking difference."

His heart picked up as he confirmed each of the bodies that were around him. Blonde hair, blue eyes for the females, a few of them had dark hair and eyes, but those were all the same too. The men either had blond hair green eyes or were dark skinned, but each held the same face. "Get out." He heard himself say. "Get out of here now." The three fighters bolted from the truck and back out into the turnpike. His heart was racing, but his mind was moving faster than ever before. "Grab one. Put one of them on the frakking stretcher and we'll have the docs cut them open to find out what the frak they are."

Adam was looking wide eyed at the others. He hadn't seen; he didn't know what they now did. A gunshot sounded and the boy staggered forward. A dark red circle began forming in the center of his chest as his eyes widened more than they had a second before. A second shot sounded and his head exploded, splattering his brain all over the side of the overturned truck. His body fell and a crippled Centurion dragged itself a few feet forward with its arm before raising its other arm to fire. Scott raised his sidearm and fired into the damaged machine. The explosive round destroyed what was left of the machine, but before he could check on the boy there was a flash of something to his side. He tried to look to see what it was, but he was hit in the chest so hard it felt as if he'd been hit with a sledge hammer. He flew backwards to the other side of the six lane turnpike and slammed into the ground, scrapping his back and legs terribly on the pavement. Through his daze, he saw a man walk up to him, but it wasn't one of his fighters. The man picked him up by the collar with one hand and lifted him straight off the ground to hold him in the air. It looked to be no effort as all as he held up. It was unnatural to say the least, but then he saw his face. It was the same as those in the truck. The blonde hair and green eyes, they were the exact same as every other one. "Your race is weak. One little slip of my hand and I could snap your neck. You'll die just like all the others did." Scott struggled against the man's grip, but couldn't break free. The man grinned and cocked his head to the side slightly. "One thing that humans do not lack is the will to keep fighting even when they've been defeated."

Scott felt down the side of his leg for his knife. It was still there and he gripped the hilt of it. "Maybe that's because we know we haven't lost yet." He pulled the knife from its sheath and stabbed hard into the man's chest. His grip instantly loosened as he twisted the knife to try and tear his vital organs, if he had any, to finish the kill. He ripped the blade from his chest and drove it back down into the man one more time. "What are you? Tell me and then I'll let you die."

The man started laughing, blood bubbles forming in his mouth as his lungs began to flood from the wound. "Can you not tell? We're the next step in evolution. Humanity's time has come and gone." He began coughing more violently now as he drew closer to death. "And when this body dies my mind will be transferred to a new one. You can't kill me, but I will come back and make sure I end your miserable life."

The rage boiled up inside of him as he jammed the blade into his throat several times, watching as the life escaped from the Cylon. "Come and get me you frakking toaster. I'll just kill you again." The machine died, and Scott picked himself up off of the ground before retrieving him side arm.

The wireless comm cracked in his ear as Hoot's fire began to pick up. "Cylon reinforcements coming in from the east down the turnpike! Looks like their at platoon sized strength! Get out of there now!" He didn't need any convincing. His body hurt badly now from being thrown across the road, but he pressed on into a jog back to his fighters. Three more fresh Cylon corpses were around Wick and a wounded Psy. They threw one of the smaller female Cylons onto the stretcher and strapped it down before taking off as fast as they could into the woods.

When they reached the LPOP, they stopped for a few seconds to allow Hoot to slide down the ladder and join them. He couldn't do anything but gawk at the dead Cylon on the stretch for a few moments. Scott took a few deep breaths to regain his composure and assess the situation. The reinforments that he had requested were just now showing up. The fighters were fitted with their full kit: weapons, grenades, sidearms and tactical vests. He nodded to them and ordered two stay behind to destroy the LPOP. "Strip it of everything we can still use, and then blow the rest. Leave it as a nice little present for the Cylons to discover when they come poking around here."

The pair of fighters that he had tasked nodded and moved quickly to begin stipping the small LPOP. Scott then turned his focus back to the dead Cylon. "Send a runner ahead of us and tell the Commander we're bringing something big back to her. Medical teams need to be on standby." Nodding, another of the fighters took off in the direction of the Serta Arms Factory.

Psy, with his arm dangling down by his side with blood now gushing from it looked in no condition to keep up moving. The medic that he requested was already working on his wound and so he left the two to it. "We're heading back to Serta with this one." He pointed to the dead Cylon while briefly looking over its grotesque features. She had been killed with a shot through her upper breast that had no doubt ruptured her spinal cord. The blood, if it could even be called that on a machine, had soaked through her clothing and matted her black hair down to her face. "Let's move quickly and quietly." Hoot, Wick, and the remaining fighter all nodded to him just before taking off through the woods.

They reached the facility in no time and were past the security checkpoints without stopping. Since they were carrying a stretcher, the guards figured it was a critical wounded they were bringing back and waved them by. If only they knew. Scott thought as he pushed through the group of civilians in the atrium of the factory. They were in medical before he knew it and they dropped the corpse hard onto the operating table, startling the two doctors within.

"It's dead." Scott said, pulling the sheet from the Cylon's face to let the doctors need a look. "I need to know what's different about this."

THe first doctor, and elderly man with a scruffy white beard pushed past Scott to look at the machine. "What do you mean? This is a woman! What happened?"

"I put two in her chest, Doc." Wick said from the back of the room, still panting from the run back to Serta. "Dropped like all the rest."

The doctor looked from Wick to the corpse and back again. "You killed her?"

"It, Doc." Scott said, prompting the second doctor, a younger man maybe in his forties, to intervene.

"You keep saying it. Why?"

"Because it's not human."

"What makes you say that?"

"I guess she and her thirty identical twins could be human."

"Identical twins?"

"We hit them in a convoy moving through the turnpike."

"Yeah, her and her buddies were all identical. Three or four sets of them."

The two doctors looked down to the body again and began whispering to one another. "Nurse!" The elderly doctor called out. "Get this into the surgery ward now. We've got an autopsy to perform."

Commander Oriol's face twisted as she looked down to the corpse. Scott watched as her expression turned from confusion to straight and blind anger. Her eyes shot up to Scott's and without taking her eyes from him, she ordered the rest out of the room. The two locked eyes and neither broke. "You gods damned fool. You frakking bastard!" She belted out only a fraction of a second after the door closed behind Wick. "You bring a frakking Cylon into my facility!"

"A dead one, _Commander_." He spat at her taking a step closer to her. "We killed more than two dozen of the bastards out on the turnpike. All identical and I need your medical teams to tell us what's different about them."

She raised her and to his face, but held back as though she was about to hit him. "You don't get to make demands of me, _Lieutenant_. You're forgetting your place. I am the senior officer here."

"Lead from the rear? Isn't that your motto, sir?" He'd had enough of her.

This time she didn't hold back, she lashed out and struck him across the face. "I'm in command here, Lieutenant, not you. You may not like it, but I still have the power to strip your command from you for someone more…" She pursed her lips for a moment before she came up with the right word. "Compliant."

Feeling bold, Scott wiped the blood from the corner of his mouth and looked back up to her. "But remember what I command, sir." He was threatening a superior officer and acting in blatant disregard of the chain of command. Two court marshaling offences in the Colonial military, but then again they weren't the Colonial military anymore. It was cutthroat out here and they each had to survive as best they could, and this was his way. "You've given me the best and brightest we have. The seasoned veterans of our forces here. You don't really have a leg to stand on."

McKnight was expecting a tounge lashing followed by a pair of MPs coming through the door to take him into custody. After that, it would likely result in a schism within the resistance forces here. He was already preparing the speech he'd give to his supporters when she spoke. It was a calm and menacing tone rather than an infuriated one. "I don't?" A wicked smile grew on her and she turned about and walked from him. "This facility, Lieutenant, is the last bastion of humanity. I can't have anyone of my top officers having any sort of sickness, whether that be of the body or mind. Your foolish move to bring a live Cylon back here wouldn't do much for your cause." Scott cocked his to the Cylon about to protest. "What would we ever have to do if Lieutenant Scott McKnight brought back a live Cylon, only to have it break free from its restraints and attack you. You only survived once we put it down with a few shots to the chest. There would be no way I could leave you in command after an incident like that." She faced him yet again, shooting a steely glare his way. The threats sank into him like a combat knife from a Centurion. He flexed his hand in anger, cracking his knuckles as he went. She'd won this time and she knew it.

"Anymore outbursts such as that, Lieutenant, and I'll have you back here counting ammunition stores for the rest of time. Do you understand me?" Gritting his teeth, the Lieutenant nodded as he tried to hold back his anger. "Now get out of my sight. I don't want you back here unless it is absolutely necessary." Scott stormed out of the room, flinging the door aside as he went.

Commander Nita Oriol had won this round, but he wasn't done. She wouldn't stay in command long if he had anything to do about it.

**Battlestar _Oceanus_, Hangar Deck **

And there she was. Danni stood in front of the nine other rebels and defiantly yelled at the Admiral. He reached out and slapped the woman hard making her fall to the deck, but she got right back up and began yelling again. He couldn't hear her, but he could only guess what she would be yelling about. Ashur only laughed and turned around signaling for his firing squads to take their position. James looked over Ashur's forces and saw that his rebels, although they weren't marines, had the numbers. There were six on the execution squad and four more guarding the rebels.

From across the hanger, James saw Kyle give him the OK and he knew that they were all in position. This would have to go off without a hitch if they were going to save all of them. The pilot looked over his shoulder to Jacob, who was still heavily bandaged and the two men grinned. Even if he was beaten and bloodied, he would still rather have Jacob at his back than anyone else. He raised his P90 and tracked the first on the squad. He had instructed for the rest of his team to take out the executioners first and save the others for the ensuing fire fight. He took a long deep breath as he sighted in the man's chest on his red dot scope. From across the hangar, a call went out for everyone to scatter. He didn't look, but he didn't have to to know what was happening. The Specialist had feigned dropping sensitive ordinance onto the deck as he was trying to load it onto a Viper. The commander looked away, as did half of the marines to see what had happened. From across the way, knuckle draggers scattered and took cover. A few of the marines even began to move, but the ruse was about up. He squeezed the trigger and fired a short burst, the marine's body shuttered for a second and then dropped to the ground. The deck exploded into a hellstorm of bullets a fraction of a second later as the rest of the rebels opened fire. The marines dropped quickly as there was no cover near their position. Ashur quickly ducked back into a small open walkway with a pair of marines who returned fire. Several of the rebels made a break for their comrades against the wall, but were cut down by the accuracy of the marines.

"Stay down!" James called to them and they settled down. Owen's knuckle draggers had joined the fight now, taking a trio of marines by surprise and surrounding Ashur's position. Before he retreated into the hallway, the Commander stepped out into the open with his sidearm and fired several rounds at the imprisoned rebels. James jumped up to fire on the commander, but stopped as he retreated into the hall.

One of the rebels charged into the open hall to catch the commander, but as soon as he turned the corner he was caught with a hail of bullets. "After him!" Another yelled, but James stopped him before he could turn the corner and suffer the same fate as the previous rebel.

"Free them!" He called out to the rebels and made sure the deck was clear. Those that hadn't taken up arms with them now cowered in the corner, frightened by the recent shooting. The Captain ran over to one of the Viper's and climbed up onto its wing so that they could all see them. "Any of you who are willing to join our cause and take this ship back from that tyrant are welcome to do so. If not, return to your quarters and wait until this is over. No harm will come to you." A few of the pilots and deck goons came out from their hiding place to take up arms, but the vast majority didn't move.

Specialist Owes ran across the deck to the Viper. "We've got wounded, sir." James jumped down and followed him back to the rebels who were to be executed. On the ground, Danni was lying with her hands clutched over her stomach to try and stop the bleeding. A few rebels were breaking open a first aid kit, but they all knew it wouldn't be enough.

James dropped down to his knees near her. "Ashur." She gasped through the pain, and he took her hand to comfort her. One of the rebels jabbed her with a needle to slow the pain. "He shot me. That frakking bastard shot me." He looked down to the wound a saw a single bullet hole in her left side just below the ribs. Her hand began shaking violently in his and he placed his hand other hand upon her head to soothe her. "Kill that frakker for me. Kill him and take the ship back."

He brushed a bit of her hair away from her face and behind her ear. "I will, Danni, just hold on. We're going to get you to a doctor." He looked up to Owens who was standing nearby. "Who's the CMO on board?" Owens only stared at the wound and he figured that this was his first time seeing any sort of combat. He couldn't let him zone out now. He still needed the man. "Owens!" He yelled and the man looked back up to him.

"Doc Howard."

"Go get him." Owens nodded and took one of the rebels with him to find the doctor. There was still more pressing things to do, but at that moment he was still too worried about her. He focused back down on the wounded Danni. She gritted her teeth hard as they threw a field dressing over her wound. "How the tables turn, right?"

Danni looked down and back up to him while trying to laugh. "Please don't make me laugh, James. How bad do you think it is?"

The shot itself looked pretty bad, but he'd seen worse during Sideswipe. Pilots had come back with gaping holes in their chests as one of the more popular tactics of their adversaries was to aim directly at the cockpit and hope to kill the pilot and take his craft from him. He'd seen pilots endure horrific wounds and come out alright if the doctor was good enough. "You'll be alright, Danni. I've seen a hell of a lot worse wounds on people that were a hell of a lot less stubborn than you." The words were supposed to be optimistic, but what he didn't tell her was that he'd seen people die from wounds that weren't nearly this bad.

She smiled at him and the gripped his hand tightly, but it didn't last. The smile disappeared from her lip and she locked eyes with him. "I'm scared, James." The cold sweat was running down the side of her face now and he could see that she truly was. He couldn't even lie to himself, he was terrified. Not just because of the fighting that he was soon to do, but he was scared that she wouldn't make it through. It had only been a few weeks that he'd known her, but he felt close to her already. Maybe it was because she was the only one that cared what happened to him when he was first brought aboard.

"You're going to be fine, Danni, I know it." She still wreathed in pain, but she still tried to compose herself enough to nod. It was a weak one, but it was there. She'll be fine, he told himself.

From down the deck, several of the rebels came running towards them. Reluctantly, he released Danni's hand and stood up, keeping his eyes on her until the medics finally arrived. It wasn't the doctor she needed, but she also couldn't be operated on here in the hangar. They picked her up and placed her onto a stretcher to take her away. She stole one final look back to him before the medics took her away. The rebels came to him out of breath and panting. He told them to settle down and regain their breath, but one tried to force the words out between breaths. "Sergeant Willow has secured the CIC, but the Colonel was able to retreat before they could capture him." Atlas cursed silently. They'd missed their shot to take both the Admiral and the Colonel. "We haven't heard from Lieutenant Cullen either, sir."

It seemed the bad news was piling on now. If they'd lost engineering and Ashur was able to reach those sections, then he'd rally his support their turning this into a bloody compartment to compartment fighting. He wanted to see this mutiny done and over within an hour with a decisive capture of the ship's critical systems. It was too late for that now. "I'm heading for the CIC. Lock down this hangar and make sure we can hold this place."

**Planet Leonis, Resistance Encampment **

"I'm telling you, she's not fit to lead." Scott threw his combat knife hard into the oak tree outside the main encampment. It had been decided that the arms factory was too valuable of a position for the resistance fighters to be coming back to each time they hit a major Cylon target. If the toasters followed them back from one of those attacks, then they frag a thousand civies without much of a fight. So Scott had convinced Commander Oriol to give him a group of fighters to move freely and hit targets having to compromise the main base. That had only partial worked. Their fearless Commander still had her hands in each operation they made. He couldn't take it much longer. She'd gotten more of them killed in her short time as the CO than he had ever done when it was just him. It wasn't like him to hold grudges, but this time he couldn't help it.

Wick pulled the knife from the tree and handed it back to the Lieutenant. "Preaching to the choir man."

"I know. I know." The conversation ended there and the two men continued throwing the knife at the tree for a bit before dispersing around the camp. Scott walked down the small row of tents and hovels that made up their little camp.

Before he could reach their main dugout, Jess popped up out of the topside flap and ran towards him. She said nothing, but grabbed his arm and continued running to the top of the nearby hill where one of their lookout positions was. The lookout was no more than one hundred meters from the Dugout and was to be used as a last line of defense. "Jess, what the frak?" She still said nothing despite his protests and continued running. Finally, they made it to the top of the hill where a pair of fighters were sitting in their tree stands, baffled at the two officers who had just crashed their way through a forest to get to the top of the hill. This OP, being so close, was much different than the others. There was a small trench dug around the base of the two tree stands that were occupied, forming a semi-circle around the hill to make a strong defensive position. Generally, there were about eight fighters here at all times, but now there were ten of them sitting lazily around the camp.

"Just wait." She said and kept her eyes fixed on the sky. Scott said nothing, but rather just looked up at the sky and kept thinking that his former ECO had lost it. Behind them, three more of the fighters that worked in their Ops center followed them up with binoculars and handed one to Jess. Maybe she hadn't lost it. "There!" She screamed and pointed into the sky. Scott strained his eyes to look at where she was pointing but saw nothing. After a minute or so, he saw it. A massive fireball was forming around something that was entering the atmosphere.

Immediately, he snatched the binos from Jess and trained them on the fireball. It was a ship, military by the looks of it, but not big enough to be a Battlestar. A Gunstar maybe? As he watched it rapidly enter the atmosphere, he saw a squadron of Raiders escorting it down to the surface. "There's Raiders all over it. Is it one of theirs?" He asked, but could plainly see it wasn't a Cylon design.

"No, it's one of ours. We picked up her distress signal as she entered the system. Apparently she was still broadcasting it when she jumped. They were talking about a Cylon ambush, but the transmission was all garbled. We think she's the _Horizon_." Jess took the binos back and looked as the ship streaked across the sky. They both had to be thinking the same thing.

Turning back to the Ops personnel, he quickly shot out orders. "Get me a medic, two of our half-tons, and six shooters per truck. Jess, you're in command until I get back. Where's Wick?" The two Ops nodded and ran off back down the hill.

"Back in the camp somewhere. You want him with you?" Jess asked as they kept their eyes on the falling ship. They probably had another five minutes until the ship fully crashed to the ground, and judging by the Raider complement, the Cylons wouldn't be far behind. They were going to need to move fast.

He motioned for them to head back down the hill. As they trotted down the slope, he replied. "No, find him and tell him to grab as many RPGs and HMGs as he can so that he can set us up a little anti-air screen. This is going to be down to the wire. Toasters will be all over us in a matter of minutes. It's going to be a frakking miracle if we get out of this one in one piece." They made it into the center of the camp where the fighters were already loading up on the half-ton trucks. He reached into her large side cargo pocket and pulled out the small data pad that she always had on her. "Triangulate the crash site and guide me in."

She nodded as he climbed up into the passenger side of the lead truck. "Good luck." She said and squeezed his hand tightly. "Make sure you come back to us." Jess smiled tightly and started to let go, but seemed to be reluctant to do so. Finally, he pulled his hand away and slammed the door to the half-ton shut.

He didn't really know what to say, but just smiled to her. "Don't worry. I will." Across from him, Hoot slammed the driver side door shut and fired up the engine. The man hit the gas and the lumbering truck began barreling down the small dirt ways. Time was short, but they needed to get those survivors if there were any before the Cylons did.

**Battlestar _Oceanus_, CIC**

James reached the CIC with no real problems. From the mixed reports that he had received, the fighting around the ship had been sporadic aside from the firefight on the hangar deck and apparently the fight that had gone south for the rebels near the engineering deck. From what he had put together from the retreating rebels and the personnel in the CIC, Lieutenant Cullen was dead and those that were sent with him were now scattered as Ashur and his loyalists fell back there.

Not many of the officers on the _Oceanus_ had jumped sided with the rebels when they had attempted to seize control. Lieutenants Hale and Cullen had been the first two to declare their loyalties. Three Ensigns, all pilots, had joined up in the hangar deck and another lieutenant had also joined on. It seemed that Ashur made sure his officers were well taken care of, for that was all that had joined on. With Danni critical and Cullen dead, there weren't any senior personnel left leaving him in command of the rebels.

Stepping up to the command table, he pulled the PA from its holster and glanced about the CIC. He knew almost none of these officers and crewmen, and they gave him distrusting glances but none said anything in protest to him taking over. It seemed, however, Dani had placed enough faith in him for the rest of them to trust him. He clicked the side of the PA, causing the overhead speakers to flare to life as he brought the mic up to him mouth. What was he supposed to say to them? They didn't know him, and he certainly couldn't pretend to know what they were going through.

"Attention all hands of the Battlestar _Oceanus_." He started; it was odd hearing his own voice projected throughout the ship. "This Captain James Atlas, temporary commander of this vessel until order can be restored." He clicked the PA off for a moment to give himself sometime to think and to let the news sink in to the crew. "About an hour ago Commander Ashur brought fourteen of his own crew onto the hangar deck to be shot for treason. They received no trial, but still the Commander forced them up against the bulk and prepared to fire. A dozen brave souls armed themselves and halted this atrocity from happening, but in the process we began something that was intended to be a quick and relatively bloodless change of command into munity." Again he clicked off the PA, throwing his head back and sighing deeply. He hated his position, he looked like an opportunist taking command of the rebels like this, but there were no other officers left with them. Just him. "I'm bringing this news to you as plainly as I can, for I will not lie to you. We are taking this ship by force. Commander Theodore Ashur is a tyrant and a mad man that needs to be relieved of command. Now I will not ask you all to take up arms against your fellow crewmen, but this ship cannot be freed from his tyranny without support. If you're willing to see the mad man fall, then join us in our fight. If not, then return to your quarters and no harm will come to you. May the Lords of Kobol look upon us all in this dark hour. _Oceanus_ Actual out."

Clicking the mic off, he tossed it onto the command table. It was time for him to wage a war in which he had no experience in. He was about to fight his fellow man for control of a ship he knew nothing about. The Gods would truly need to be on his side now.


End file.
